


Take Me Somewhere New

by TheQuietQuill



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Broken Engagement, Cheating, F/M, Fighting, Fluff and Smut, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, Honeymoon, Implied/Referenced Cheating, M/M, Mexico, Multi, Oral Sex, Reconciliation, Slow Burn, Smut, Summer Vacation, Swearing, Vacation, Vaginal Sex, lots of angst lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2019-05-23 23:39:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 51,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14943497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheQuietQuill/pseuds/TheQuietQuill
Summary: “Well,” Eleanor pats Louis’ knee and exclaims, “You are lucky as Hell you ran into me!”I am, Louis thinks earnestly.Or: Louis goes on a honeymoon for one to Los Cabos, and Eleanor gives him the adventure of a lifetime.





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> HI guys! Soo this is the longest fic I ever wrote! I hope you all find it worth the read! I loved writing TMSN so much and I'm excited to share this with you! Please read and enjoy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title comes from Avril Lavigne's I'm With You

Louis’ more than happy to turn his cell off when he’s instructed to do so over the PA system.

                New York to Los Cabos, a six-hour flight.

                Six hours of bliss.

                Just then, a baby somewhere in coach starts screaming their head off.

                Still, Louis would take a crying baby over being bombarded by his family and friends.

                _‘Are you okay?’_ they all asked him with pitied faces.

                In short, no. Louis Tomlinson is not okay.

                He bounces his leg and sighs, eager to get out-for the plane to just take off and take him far away from here. He can’t stand being here anymore. He taps his fingers on his thigh and anxiously looks at the empty seat to his left. Louis feels a sick twist in his gut.

                _‘No Lou! I love the window seat!’_

Louis loves the window seats in airplanes too. He let her have it though, just to make her happy. But now, that seat is open, free for him to take and gaze out into the sheets of clouds when they’re up in the skies.

                And yet, Louis doesn’t budge.

                It’s still _her_ seat somehow.

                “You a nervous flyer?”

                Louis blinks and looks to his left. Across the aisle sits a woman with long, wavy brunette hair and a sweet smile. She’s pretty, like really fucking pretty with amber eyes that seem to be genuine. Her style is a weird mix of causal yet posh. She has a Channel backpack as her carryon and Adidas sweats, but she’s wearing a baggy pastel purple sweater and nude converse shoes that both look like they’re about ten years old.

                She looks nothing like _her_.

                Louis’ happy that she doesn’t.

                But, no. She can’t be talking to him. Louis looks around and notices everyone else in first class isn’t paying attention at all to this woman. When he looks back at her, the woman tilts her head and waits for him to speak.

                “Um, no,” Louis says, his tone unsure.

                The woman laughs and God, it feels like it’s been ages since Louis’ heard laughter. This woman has such a great laugh.

                “You sure about that?” she asks. It’s weird, normally hates intrusive people that try to get into his business. But he doesn’t get that vibe from this woman. She tacks on, “It’s okay if you are. Humans weren’t made to fly.”

                Louis gives her a tiny smirk, “I’m fine really.”

                That’s a lie, but the poor lady doesn’t need to know that.

                “Only a six-hour flight, hun,” she says with a shrug and a grin, “No sweat, it’ll be over before you know it!”

                Louis wants to tell her again, that he’s not nervous. But curiosity gets the best of him.

                “Do you fly a lot?” he asks, as the final passengers getting on the plane walk by them. That question garners another chuckle from the woman.

                “Is that an airplane equivalent to guys coming up to the bar and asking, _‘Do you come here often?’_ ”

                Louis’ eyes widen and he blurts out, “Oh no. I’m not hitting on you!” For a second Louis scolds himself for coming across rude. This woman doesn’t deserve that, it’s just-he’s sure as Hell not ready for another relationship. Everything’s a mess right now to say the least. Louis doesn’t need to spring that onto another woman.

                Thankfully, the woman gives him a pointed look, one full of fond and that loosens the tension.

                “I didn’t say you were. I was just making an observation,” she says and Louis can’t tell if she means it or not. She continues, “And to answer your question, yes I fly a lot. All the time basically. I’m always jetting off somewhere.”

                “Really?” Louis asks, wondering how the Hell anyone could afford doing that.

                The woman nods, “I’m a travel writer.”

                “Uh?” Louis replies, his face squishing up.

                “Basically,” she explains, “I have a travel blog, a very popular one at the. _Travel with E?_ Ever heard of it?”

                Louis shakes his head lamely. The woman smiles regardless.

                “I swear it’s a popular blog! Anyway, basically I just write about my travels. At first, it was just for fun and all. Then suddenly, I gained more followers. Hotels started reaching out to me, offering me all expenses paid trips in exchange for me writing about their cities, hotels and attractions.”

                Louis’ eyes perk up, “Seriously?!” The woman quirks one of her eyebrows.

                “I happen to be very good at my job, Sir,” she squints her eyes at him, mocking anger but failing.

                God she’s adorable.

                Louis inwardly shakes his head.

                “I’m not Sir,” he retorts, feeling giddy for some reason, “I’m Louis.”

                He reaches across the aisle and the woman shakes his hand.

                “I’m E,” she tells him, grinning cleverly, “E for Eleanor.”

                Eleanor. That’s a different name, at least one Louis doesn’t hear often. He decides right away he likes that name, a lot.

                Just as Louis pulls his arm back, the plane is being instructed to take their seats and buckle up. He fastens his seatbelt and glances over to Eleanor. She’s boasting a wide, excited smile that reassures Louis that yes. He made the right decision to take this trip, to leave the mess behind for others to figure out and not him.

                “We’re only going up from here, Louis!” Eleanor tells him and leans back into her seat.

                Louis watches her sigh and close her eyes, her body wiggles into the seat like as though she were a child. He smirks, knowing full well Eleanor’s not looking.

                Louis hopes she’s right.

~~~

                They spent most of the flight to themselves, with Louis watching a couple of movies and Eleanor reading some magazines and writing in her journal. However, Louis caught Eleanor looking his way several times. She never once looked guilty about being discovered, or even bothered to pretend she wasn’t staring at him. She always smiled when Louis noticed her.

                In a weird way, he felt guilty every time he looked over her way. He shouldn’t feel this way, he should have zero guilt about checking another woman out after the shit week he’s had. But he does nevertheless. It’s just nice to have another face that Louis’ not too familiar with. Eleanor’s fresh and new and seems a little bit silly yet wonderful as well. So Louis couldn’t help himself but to glance over to Eleanor every time he was bored with his movie, which turned out to be a lot.

                The hotel is only an hour away from the airport and once his taxi arrived there, Louis wondered off to check out the beach behind the hotel. With luggage in toe, Louis steps out into the white sandy beach, the evening cooler then he expected for June. It’s nearing nine at night, and the sun is just starting to set. Louis’ entranced by the reflected swirls of pinks and orange on the gentle waves of the ocean. The waves roar loudly as the tides rush in, and the winds carry salt to Louis’ nose.

                Mindlessly, Louis digs through his backpack without looking away from the sunset. He finds his trusty camera and turns it on. Bringing it up to his eye, Louis points at the horizon and clicks a few shots, savoring the tranquility surrounding him.

                It’s so peaceful.

                And then it’s not anymore.

                A giggly couple gains Louis’ attention. They’re practically pouncing around the beach. Louis feels sick when the man picks up his partner and twirls her around, like they’re in some fucking rom-com or something.

                That was supposed to be _him_.

                Louis suddenly remembers that his hotel has a bar.

                He promptly turns around and walks off the beach, his suitcase lagging in the sand.

                He’s met with refreshing AC in the hotel lobby, along with bright colored walls and a fountain in the center of the lobby. The decorations are all traditional, older Mexican style, with mosaic tiles on the floor, a stone fireplace in the corner with multicolored striped chairs around it, and a heavy iron piece of artwork mounted on the wall behind the front desk.

                Louis’ also met by the sight of Eleanor. She’s at the front desk, with her lavender hoodie tied to her waist and her hair in a ponytail. Somewhere between getting off the airport and ending up in the lobby, she’s changed her sweatpants for a pair of tattered jean shorts, exposing her long tan legs.

                A lump forms in his throat; Louis swallows it hard and approaches the front desk.

                “If you need anything at all Miss Calder, please ring the front desk and ask for me, Santiago,” Louis frowns at the smiling man, or rather Santiago, behind the desk. It’s clear he’s kissing ass in hopes of a good review from Eleanor, “Thank you again for staying with us, Miss. Calder! Hope you have a wonderful time in Los Cabos!”

                Looking sideways, Louis catching Eleanor retorting the same fake smile back at the man she takes her room key, “It’s my pleasure! I’m looking forward to it.”

                Another woman approaches the desk, one with a name tag that reads Flora. She grins at Louis, one that seems somewhat genuine.

                “Can I help you, Sir?” Flora asks.

                Louis hesitates, “Um, yeah. Reservation for Tomlinson?” Flora nods and begins typing in her computer

                “Oh, hi Louis!” Eleanor says beside him. He glances her way, Eleanor’s beaming. She’s so cute it physically pains him.

                “Hi Eleanor,” he grins, forgetting about everything else around them. Suddenly it’s just him and Eleanor, which Louis’ not complaining one bit. He shrugs, “So we’re staying in the same hotel then.”

                Eleanor’s smile grows, but there’s something more to it suddenly. Suddenly, her eyes are a bit darker, more focused on Louis in a way that has his heart picking up a bit. Suddenly, she’s a step closer to him and there’s a hand comes up to Louis’ forearm, a finger racing his elbow. Suddenly, Eleanor’s perfume is all Louis can smell and her coy, curious expression is more then he can bear.

                “I was hoping I’d get to see you again,” Eleanor admits, her voice low and her grin almost shy. Louis should be running away, he should tell her that he’s too fucked up at the moment to be worthy of her time and attention. But he doesn’t.

                Instead.

                “I hope this means we’ll see each other a lot,” he says. Louis thinks he sees a blush grow on Eleanor’s cheek.

                She responds without missing a beat, “I’m looking forward to that.” Louis’ heart flutters in his chest.

                And then-

                “Oh Mr. and Mrs. Tomlinson! Yes, you booked our honeymoon suite! Congratulations!”

                And everything sorta drops after that.

                Especially the smile that was on Eleanor’s face just seconds before. God, she looks confused and maybe even a little hurt even.

                Great. Just when he as starting to forget everything, all the memories flooded back to him.

                _“I’m sorry, Lou! I didn’t-we didn’t mean to-”_

                Louis closes his eyes and sighs, forcing these images away for now. He turns to Flora, but can’t look at her in the eye.

                “Um, actually. It’s, ah,” he shakes his head, “There is no Mrs. Tomlinson. Just me.”

                When he chances a glance, Flora’s watching him with pitied eyes.

                Great way to start off a honeymoon, with revelations and awkwardness.

                “I’m not gonna go up to my suite just yet,” he tells her and flashes a feeble, tight smile. He’s trying to do damage control but there’s no point really, “So, um. Could I have somebody take my stuff up to my room please?”

                Flora nods stiffly, her eyes still lingering on him, “Sure thing, Mr. Tomlinson.” She finishes up registering him in and mutely gestures for a bellhop. Flora hands Louis his room keys, her amber eyes saddened, “Thank you for choosing _Las Ventanas al Paraiso_. We hope you enjoy your stay.”

                Louis swallows thickly and nods. He turns away, expecting to see Eleanor long gone, but surprisingly, she’s still there. She’s mumbling to the bellhop and slips him a twenty-dollar bill. He approaches the cart with heavy feet and overhears Eleanor finishing her instructions while she puts her own luggage on the cart.

                “Any sign of romance in that suite, get rid of it okay? Any rose petals, heart shaped soaps-anything. Get rid of it all.”

                Which is actually really sweet of Eleanor to do.

                “What about the complimentary champagne?” the bellhop asks.

                Louis’ the one who states, “Keep it in there, please. Thank you,” and sets his bags on the cart.

                The bellhop nods awkwardly and wheels off with their luggage.  “Thanks for doing that,” Louis says to her, relieved.

                Eleanor shakes her head weakly, “It’s nothing.”

                Louis and Eleanor are left standing in the middle of the lobby, looking at each other unsurely. It’s strained now, which it never was before. It was so easy and effortless to talk to her. Eleanor was opened before, and now it’s like Louis’ looking at a brick wall. She knows, not enough but she knows more than Louis wanted her to know.

                “I’ve been through Hell these past couple of weeks,” he tells Eleanor bluntly. The woman looks at him closely, suddenly more reserved around him then she was just minutes before.

                And then, she’s putting her arm around Louis’ shoulder.

                “Would you like to get a drink with me?”

                Louis exhales, relieved, “Gladly.”

~~~

                Once Louis has a couple sips of Scotch in him, he feels a bit more relaxed. He doesn’t feel as pathetic or sad, and he forgets, for a moment, that he won’t be going to a honeymoon suite by himself at the end of the night.

                But still, it’s all lingering, waiting to come out. Even if Louis went on this honeymoon by himself to get away from it all, to be around faces that don’t know what happened for Louis, he’s not exactly surprised that he could outrun it all.

                “I was supposed to get married last Saturday,” Louis blurts out, like it’s a secret he’s being keeping in, dreading to tell anyone and desperately trying to forget everything. Which is one-hundred percent true.

                Louis quickly takes another sip. His glass taps on the wooden bar, and it barely makes a noise over the loud Mariachi band playing in the corner of the bar. Loads of people, happy drunk people are talking around them. Louis winces at the laughter, wishing more than anything that he could join in.

                Surprisingly, Eleanor’s quiet. Louis was certain she would be asking a ton of questions. But instead, when Louis looks through his fringed bang, Eleanor is watching him with a muted expression on her face. It eases Louis, that she’s not rushing him.

                Louis looks directly at Eleanor and swallows thickly before saying, “But I found one of my best friend fucking my fiancé the day before the wedding.”

                At that, Eleanor’s eyes widen.

                “What?!” she asks. Louis scoffs bitterly and nods.

                “It was-God,” he sighs and takes in another slow sip.

                Eleanor quickly says, “Louis, you don’t need to tell me. I get the picture.”

                “I need to-I,” Louis shrugs and manages a feeble smile, “I’ll admit, I only went on this trip because I wanted to get away from all that but like. It’s like I can’t get away from it. I’ve been trying to convince myself to accept it and move on.”

                Eleanor purses her lips and nods down at her glass of Rosé.

                With a huge breath Louis goes on, “I’m an accountant in Boston; it’s boring as Hell but pays well enough. I’ve always been good with numbers and figures and money. But, I’m also a photographer too and have my own little business. It’s always been a passion of mine, photography, so I started advertising and picking up parties and weddings on the weekends whenever I could.

                “When I made the decision to marry Perrie, um-that’s, she’s my ex now,” Louis flushes, still getting use to referring to Perrie in that way, “I started picking up more and more gigs. I didn’t need to, but I just wanted to make sure we had enough money for the wedding plus the honeymoon. I, um-sorta planned this trip to surprise Perrie with. She didn’t know about Los Cabos.”

                “My God,” Eleanor shakes her head and sips her wine. Louis barks an awkward laugh.

                “Tell me about it,” he drones and goes on, “Anyway, according to her at least, I wasn’t paying attention enough to her. Perrie was busy with the wedding and her own job, but I was fitting most of the bill ya know? I tried to be with her when I could but-”

                Louis stops abruptly and swallows thickly. The alcohol churns sourly in his gut.

                Thankfully Eleanor reaches across the table. Her hand on his wrist is a welcomed sensation.

                “Again, you don’t need to tell me,” Eleanor assures him.

                “No, it’s-I want to. You’ve been so nice to me and,” Louis looks up at her, eyes wide and angelic. His chest swoons a bit at the sight, “I appreciate you being with me so much. You deserve to know everything.”

                Eleanor sighs, “You’re stubborn, aren’t you?”

                “I’ve been told,” Louis states with a laugh. He finishes off his scotch swiftly and forces himself to continue.

                “I worked my ass for months, and anything Perrie wanted for the wedding she got, regardless of price. I didn’t even, fuck-I thought everything was fine! I didn’t notice her pulling away from me. Perrie seemed happy and excited for the wedding-God,” Louis grinds his teeth, his head shaking in dismay, “I just-she made dinner and did our laundry and planned our wedding every day for months, all while she was sneaking off to fuck my best friend.”

                “Fucking bitch,” Eleanor mutters. She shakes her head, “I’m sorry. That was rude of me.”

                Louis nods tightly but doesn’t argue her claim.

                “It was the night of the rehearsal dinner, and everything went smoothly at the rehearsal. I was so excited to get married. My mom and siblings flew in from California, and like-my family’s not rich and plane tickets cost a lot. I know she sent money to Perrie for our wedding, even after I told her not to-”

                Louis feels sick at the thought, bile threatening the back of his throat and preventing words. His mom was so happy for his wedding. She loved Perrie and couldn’t wait for her to be a Tomlinson. His sisters also loved Perrie. They all are (or were rather) friends on social media and regularly talked Perrie in the five or so years Louis was with Perrie. Perrie loved Louis’ family too, and Louis felt accepted in Perrie’s family as well.

                Louis coughs tightly.

                “My mom wanted a picture of the two of us, at our rehearsal dinner,” Louis explains with a weak smile, “We had our rehearsal dinner at some manner, but to me it was just a mansion with lots of room. All of our friends and family were there, and my mom wanted a picture of us. But Perrie wasn’t in the ballroom, and later a realized that at the time, my one of my closest friends Zayn there wasn’t either.”

                Louis curls his fingers around his glass.

                “Louis, you don’t-” Eleanor tries once again.

                “I found them in a utility closet,” Louis admits bitterly, scoffing as he shakes his head, “I went looking for Perrie and found her moaning my best friend’s name in a fucking janitor’s closet.” He glares down Eleanor across the table, “They were fucking like animals, couldn’t even wait to make it to some sort of bedroom. They had to fuck in a janitor’s closet ten feet from where my and Perrie’s families were celebrating our upcoming wedding.”

                Eleanor bites her lip, but doesn’t say anything. Louis can’t really blame her, it’s a lot to throw on someone you just met earlier that day.

                “I couldn’t, fuck. I just opened the door, saw them scramble to their feet. Perrie was trying to explain, begging me to listen her, but I couldn’t speak,” Louis confesses, “I left them while they were scrambling to put their clothes back on, and wandered back to the ballroom. My friend Niall found me, asked me what was wrong. I barely remember telling him the wedding was off, and just said Zayn and Perrie’s name,” Louis flushes, “They walked back in at that point, and Niall said he noticed Zayn’s shirt buttons were fucked up and Perrie’s lipstick was smeared and on Zayn’s lips as well. Ni put two and two together socked Zayn right in the face, front of everyone.”

                “Good friend you got there, Niall I mean,” Eleanor comments. Louis looks up and thankfully, Eleanor doesn’t hold pity in her gaze.

                Louis rubs his head, “It got bat-shit crazy after that. My mom was crying and begging why. My sister Lottie was shouting at Perrie and I guess my other sisters had to hold her back because she was ready to fight Perrie. The rest of my groomsmen were cornering Zayn and Perrie’s brother and my stepdad had to pull them all away from him. Perrie kept trying to get to me, tried to explain everything to me. God I couldn’t even look at her, I was just so angry. I didn’t-I don’t know how she could do that to me.”

                Louis drops his head. Lottie’s voice still burns in his ears.

                _“How long have you been cheating on my brother, bitch?!”_

“I’m sorry,” Eleanor says.

                Louis shrugs sagely, “It is what it is I guess. I, uh, yelled at Perrie somewhere along the way, telling it to her face that the wedding was off and that I could never marry her now,” he scoffs, “She had this look on her face, so hurt and betrayed. _She_ was hurt somehow, even though she was cheating on me with my former best friend for months on end. I was disgusted, I couldn’t be there. I couldn’t listen to my mom and sisters crying. I couldn’t stand Perrie’s family trying to defend their daughter. I couldn’t stand the pity looks the catering staff was giving me while they were cleaning up, all while gossiping about me and my shit life to each other. My friends Niall, Oli and Calvin got me out of there, lent me one of their cars and I just took off. I drove for hours, ignoring my cell completely, until I ended up in a gas station in Maine.”

                “Maine,” Eleanor repeats, “There’s nothing out there.”

                “Exactly,” Louis agrees, “On the morning I was supposed to get married, I was in the middle of nowhere.”

                Louis remembers finally calling his mom and cried with her on his cellphone in a gas station restroom. He doesn’t want to tell Eleanor that. He doesn’t want to admit that it was his mom who convinced him to come back, that Louis didn’t want to come back. He doesn’t want to say that he spent the week between his canceled wedding and his solo honeymoon in a drunken state and his mom and Niall had to practically pack up his suitcase and push him out of his apartment earlier that day.

                He was so excited to go to Los Cabos. But now that’s he’s here, Louis’ excited for a whole new reason.

                It’s because of the cute brunette that’s sitting across from him with Rosé glistening on her lips.

                “Excuse me, Sir?”

                Louis blinks and looks over to the peppy waitress that’s suddenly at their table.

                “Um, yeah?”

                She smiles warmly, “The gentlemen at the table behind me would like to buy you a drink-anything you’d like.”

                Both Eleanor and Louis look over the waitress’ shoulder. The two men at the table wave at Louis sheepishly. Both have brown hair, with one being longer than the other man’s hair, and both look suntanned and exhausted.

                “He’ll take another scotch, thank you,” Eleanor tells the waitress. She nods and briskly ends back to the bar. Louis eyes Eleanor, who shrugs, “What? It’s a free drink! No use in turning it down.”

                Yet another shadow cast over the table a second later, “Hello.”

                It’s one of the guys from the other table, the one with longer hair. Up close, Louis notes his eyes are green and he has dimples as he smiles. He’s also wearing the ugliest Hawaiian patterned shirt Louis’ ever seen, but he keeps that to himself.

                “I’m sorry to bother you two,” he says. The man goes on, “I’m Harry. My friend Liam-” he moves and gestures to the other man at the table, “-And I couldn’t help overhearing what you’ve been through. We just wanted to say how sorry we are and we how you have a kickass vacation!”

                Louis’ unsure how to response, “Um-”

                Thankfully, Eleanor’s there.

                “How sweet of you!” She says and has Harry blushing, “You guys can sit with us if you like.”

                “Really?” he looks to Louis for confirmation. Louis shrugs after a second.

                “Sure,” he agrees, “I’m Louis, and she’s Eleanor.”

                “Lovely to meet you both,” Harry smiles at them before turning around, “Liam, get over here!”

                At that, the Liam guy scrambles to his feet. Where Harry seems to have a casual ease to him, Liam seems a bit dorky and not as smooth. But still, when he comes up to the table with his and Harry’s drinks, Liam seems friendly enough as he introduces himself and slides into the booth next to Louis. 

                “You guys from the states?” Eleanor asks, breaking the silence just as Louis’ new drink comes to the table.

                Harry scoffs, “No, thank god. We’re from Canada! Li and I go to uni near Ontario. My sister came here last year one a girl’s trip. I figured me and Liam deserved a lad’s holiday!”

                Louis notices, from the corner of his eye, how Liam involuntarily flinches at the statement, particularly at the moment Harry says ‘lads.’

                Hm.

                “Yeah,” Liam adds, voice strained, “We just got in yesterday and spent all day at the beach! It’s hot as Hell.”

                Harry groans, and reaches across to affectionately smack Liam on the head, “This one here, always somethin’ to complain about-even when we’re in paradise!”

                Eleanor laughs, “Oh it’s a bit of a shock for me! I just got back from Sweden not too long ago, and it’s chilly over there, despite it being summer,” she extends her arm across the table, “I’m Eleanor, by the way.”

                “Holy shit!” Harry breathes out, “You’re Eleanor?! From _Travel with E_? How did I not recognize you sooner?! Oh my God, you’re like my idol! I love your blog so much! You’re everything I aspire to be!”

                Louis’ a bit stunned. He guesses that Eleanor really wasn’t lying when she said she her blog was very popular. He feels a bit guilty not knowing anything about it.

                Liam scoffs at his friend and tells Eleanor, “He’s not kidding. He lives for your posts on social media and comments on all your posts on Instagram.”

                “Really?” Eleanor asks bemused.

                Harry flushes, “Well yeah. I’d love to travel more, but with uni and work it’s hard to. But your posts, the way you describe the places you go to, it’s like I’m there with you.”

                “Thank you, Harry,” Eleanor responds sincerely, “That’s what I’ve always wanted my readers to feel when they read about my travels.”

                The waitress returns then when Louis’ new drink and sets it down in front of him.

                Liam asks once the waitress is gone, “So, what drink did you get?”

                “Just scotch,” Louis replies with a shrug.

                “Fuck man,” Harry blurts out of nowhere, “I’m sorry, I didn’t even ask your name.”

                “Louis,” Louis shakes Harry’s hand, “I’m from Boston.”

                “Hi Louis,” Liam greets him. He sheepish looks at his drink, “Yeah, um. We heard you talking about, yeah. And that fucking sucks man. Least we could do was buy you a drink.”

                “I appreciate it, thanks,” Louis smiles at Harry and Liam. They seem like good guys, great even. But he feels drained, partly from the traveling but mainly because he’s tired of talking about all this shit.

                Louis finishes off his drink slowly within an hour. He remains quiet, settling instead to listen to the conversations being had. Liam’s going to school for technological science (whatever that is), while Harry is majoring in literature in hopes to become a professor. Eleanor reveals bits and pieces of her various travels and it’s fascinating to hear her go on about all the places she’s been to.

                He excuses himself from the table around midnight, his limbs weak and eyes crossing slightly. Louis’ mind is still coherent but it’s fuzzy enough that he barely cares about the concerned look Eleanor gives him as he gets to his feet. I’m fine, Louis wants to tell her, but he doesn’t seem to have the energy to do so. He thanks Liam and Harry again for the drink and agrees with them when they state that they hope to see Louis around.

                Louis gets rides the elevator by himself to the top floor. He staggers down the empty, unbearably quiet hall until he finds the S _ala de Amor_ suite. Louis doesn’t speak much Spanish, but he knows what ‘amor’ is. His stomach churns in alcohol just looking at the word written in cursive gold writing on the door. He scans his room key and enters the large suite, being greeted by a cool breeze and the sound of the ocean rolling around from the shore.

                The suite has a large window wall in the back of the room that was left open to the balcony attached outside. The room is styled I light colored walls, pine wood floors and soft pops of colors. There’s a glass round table in front of the window wall with two chairs, a dresser under the flat screen TV mounted on the wall across the bed, and Spanish styled art on the end tables. Louis makes himself look at the bed, which is decorated in white linen sheets and several unnecessary colorful pillows. The four-post bed holds a canopy, and sheer white fabric is tied to each post.

                Louis closes the windows and draws the curtains. He desperately needs a shower and to brush his teeth but decides against it. He shucks his jeans and shirt off, and then tosses them on his suitcase next to the dresser. Louis drops on his favored side the bed face first just in his boxers. He just stares for the longest time on the empty half of the king side bed, the sheets cool under his naked skin.

                He falls asleep with his hand clinging onto the empty pillow beside him.


	2. Chapter Two

Louis’ just out of the shower when he hears a knock at the door. He frowns, wondering who would be bothering him at eight in the morning. He ruffles his hair with a towel before tying it around his waist. He opens the door, expecting to find a maid or something in the hall.

                Instead, it’s Eleanor.

                “Oh,” the woman exhales. Louis doesn’t miss the way Eleanor’s eyes scan down his naked wet torso for a split second. She blinks and looks down at the ground bashfully. Louis lets himself look at Eleanor. She’s wearing a white tank top that nearly covers her pink shorts and her hair is back in a hair ponytail. Louis looks away once he realizes Eleanor’s not wearing a bra, and he feels a bit guilty blatantly checking out her nipples through her shirt.

                He’s so used to being in a relationship and making sure his eyes never wondered away from Perrie.

                Old habits die hard.

                Louis smirks, “Morning Eleanor.”

                “Hi,” she replies, looking up to Louis’ face. Eleanor still looks a bit tired, her face sleepy and soft. She’s cute-Louis freely admits it, “I was just wanting to check up on you and see if you slept well and all.”

                “Slept well?” Louis repeats, and Eleanor nods sheepishly, “Uh, yeah I guess. The bed’s nice and big.”

                _Too_ big, Louis thinks.

                “Good—great,” Eleanor comments, “I just wanted to ask if you’d like to have breakfast in my room. That is if you already had breakfast, I mean. I get free room service, so you wouldn’t be putting me out or anything.”

                Louis confirms, “Wait, you get free room service?” Eleanor shrugs.

                “The hotel wants a good review on all aspects, including food.”

                “Wow,” Louis breathes out.

                Eleanor giggles, “I’ll um-wait until you come down then. I’m at the other end of the hallway, Room 504.”

                “Cool, thanks,” Louis says before Eleanor waves him goodbye and he closes the door.

                An hour later, Louis finds himself laying on Eleanor’s bed as he snacks on a ring of pineapple. Breakfast consisted of omelets with spicy chorizo, warm bread with butter and jam, and fresh tropical fruits. Eleanor’s room is not as big as Louis’ and she doesn’t have a canopy bed like he does, but the elegance and luxury are still ever present. Eleanor had open up her window wall, letting in the salty air and the bright raising sun into the room. Louis can hear the faint sounds of people on the beach below over the roaring echoes of the tide coming in.

                “So,” Eleanor says after some time of silence. Louis sits up enough to look at her. Eleanor’s on the bed with her head at the foot of the mattress, opposite to Louis’ position. Had he not taken a shower that morning, Louis wouldn’t feel as comfortable with Eleanor being so close to his feet.

                Perrie always complains about his smelly feet-

                No. Louis scolds himself mutely, Stop thinking about her. Not on his honeymoon.

                “Yeah?” he positions instead.

                “What are you gonna do?” Eleanor asks.

                Louis frowns “Uh?”

                “Well,” Eleanor goes on as she hoists herself up on the bed, her elbows resting on the mattress, “You’re currently in one of the Earth’s paradises. Surely you must have something planned.”

                Louis shrugs.

                “Seriously?!” Eleanor gawks, “Nothing at all?”

                “I figured that, um, when we got here, Perr-I mean, we would figure all that out once we got here…”

                Eleanor’s face falls, “Oh.”

                “Yeah.” Eleanor sighs, almost happily, and sits up quickly.

                “Well,” she pats Louis’ knee and exclaims, “You are lucky as Hell you ran into me.”

                _I am_ , Louis thinks.

                Eleanor hops off the bed and retrieves what looks like to be a binder of some sort on the dresser. Louis watches as she gets back on the mattress on her knees and crawls towards him. He’s handed the binder.

                “What’s this?” Louis asks as he opens the binder.

                “That is an activity guideline the hotel gave me,” Eleanor explains as she shifts beside him. Louis stills when she places her head on his shoulder but focuses on the page she points at, “See? There’s loads of great stuff to do in Los Cabos.”

                Louis reads, “Hang-gliding, salsa lessons, surfing, hiking, spas, zip lining,” he exhales, “whoa-private boat tours?”

                Eleanor nods on his shoulder, “Yep. And all I have to do is call the front desk, and they’ll set us up with anything we want to do. Kayaking, snorkeling, ATV riding-”

                “We?” Louis asks, turning to face her. Eleanor’s lifted herself from Louis’ shoulder but he still feels the warm from her presence there.

                “Well, yeah. Hotels give me the option to bring another person with me. I usually don’t take advantage of that because I always travel alone but now,” Eleanor grins, “I can take you on all these adventures.”

                Louis shakes his head, “You don’t have to do that.”

                “I want to.”

                “Look, I don’t need your pity-”

                Eleanor sighs, “Louis, I don’t pity you. You’re actually quite interesting and seem like a fun guy.”

                Louis mutely stares down at the binder. Eleanor goes on.

                “Actually, I was sorta hoping you’d help me out with something.”

                That gains Louis’ attention, “What?”

                “You see,” Eleanor begins, “The part of my blog that has always been my weakest point are the pictures.” 

                “Pictures?” Louis repeats.

                Eleanor nods, “Yeah, like. Writing everything is super easy for me, but then my readers asked if I could add pictures to my posts, so they’d see everything too. I started doing that about a year ago, but I dunno. I watched videos of photography on YouTube but I still take shitty pictures.”

                “They can’t be _that_ bad,” Louis says on a laugh.

                “They are!” Eleanor nearly whines, “Some of my nicer readers have left tips in the comments on how to take better pictures. And then some trolling assholes leave rude comments in all caps about how I must be mentally challenged or something for not knowing much about angles and lighting or whatever.”

                “Wow that’s gross,” Louis comments.

                Eleanor shrugs, “Comes with the job. Anyway, I was hoping you could take the pictures for all of our adventures? I’ll give you credit on my blog and links to your website and social media accounts, of course. And I’ll pay you-”

                “You don’t need to pay me, El-Jesus,” Louis grumbles. Eleanor nervously bites her lip and God. Louis has only known this woman for a day and she’s already got such a hold on him. Louis can’t explain it really. He just can’t say no to Eleanor.

                So, Louis breaks out into a smile, “You’re already giving me all these adventures for free.”

                “So you’ll do it?” Eleanor asks excitedly.

                “Yes, but only for the sake of photography,” Louis reasons and playfully adds, “I can’t have you disgracing the name of art with shitty pictures.”

                Eleanor shoves Louis lightly and smirks, “Dick! I’m offering you the trip of a lifetime!”

                “But I’ll be working!” Louis reasons.

                “So will I!” Eleanor retorts. Her smile breaks into a laugh , a lovely laugh that draws up the corners of Louis’ lips.

                Suddenly, Louis’ actually excited for his honeymoon.

~~~

                But all excitement goes away the next morning.

                “Nope,” Louis says again for what feels like the thousandth time since they got here. He steps away from the ledge, the metal hook he’s attached to drags along the cable wire above him.

                Eleanor sighs as Louis rejoins her at the other end of the wooden platform. She adjusts the harness straps on her shoulders. The sun glares in Louis’ eyes, the dry Mexican heat makes the harness suffocate his chest.

                “Louis,” Eleanor says softly. Louis gulps, the anxiety turning his stomach. His heart racing as he looks out on the vast openness, the dry land. There are some shrubs and trees sparely laid out on the land with patches of dry sand mixed in. God, Louis struggles to figure just how high up they are. He knows it’s not that high off from the ground, but it sure looks like it, and it feels high too.

                Louis looks away, his hands jittery.

                “I-I think we need another picture of you with your harness-”

                Eleanor interjects, “No we don’t Louis. You’ve taken enough pictures for the blog. Stop stalling.”

                “I’m not stalling,” Louis insists, can fails to add weight in his voice. He regrets agreeing to all of this. He wants nothing more than to be back at the hotel in his lonely honeymoon suite and trying to forget about his shitty ex-fiancé and the wedding that should’ve been. He planned on doing that all along, mope around a high-end hotel in Mexico all by his lonesome and drink tequila until he could walk straight. Louis was fine with that idea, but zip lining? Not so much. 

                Suddenly, Eleanor’s hand is on Louis’ upper arm. When Louis looks up at her, Eleanor holds a serious expression in her face. For the tenth time since they met up a few hours earlier, Louis’ eyes wonder to Eleanor’s exposed belly button. She’s wearing a black, short sleeved crop top with khaki shorts and hiking shoes, with her hair in a low pony tail. Louis can’t help but find Eleanor cute as Hell in a helmet and bulky harness strapped on her chest and around her upper legs.

                Just her touch relaxes Louis a bit.

                “Louis, I wouldn’t suggest going zip lining if I didn’t think it was safe,” she assures him. Louis still feels a bit uneasy but Eleanor continues, “I won’t lie to you, when I first went zip lining I was scared as well. You will be for the first few seconds once you get off that ledge, but I’m telling you Louis. It’s so fucking worth it.”

                Louis asks, “W-What’s it like?” Eleanor breaks into a smile.

                “You feel like a superhero,” she says, “You feel so powerful, so invincible. Nothing can touch you up here Louis-you’re free in every sense of the word.”

                To say that Louis is intrigued is an understatement. However, he finds himself worried still.  

                “All you have to do is jump off, Louis,” Eleanor tells him. She grins before saying, “Let go of the ledge and be free.”

                Louis gulps as Eleanor squeezes his forearm once more. He finds himself weakly nodding. He has to do it; they’re here now and Louis knows he’ll probably never get the chance ever again in his life. Worse of all, the idea of letting Eleanor down is the last thing Louis wants to do. Sure, she’s only been in his life for a few days. But she’s helped him out more then Eleanor could possibly know.

                Eleanor smiles happily, “I’ll go first, okay?”

                Louis watches as Eleanor goes up to the ledge. One of the employees of the place grabs Eleanor’s harness from the back. Louis’ breath gets stuck in his throat as he watches Eleanor being pushed off the ledge. He waits for a horrified scream from the girl, but he doesn’t get that. Instead, Eleanor lets out a loud holler as she quite literally zips away over the open field. She spreads her arms out like a free bird and the field echoes with Eleanor’s laughter. Louis squints into the distance and smiles as relief for the first time since they got here.

                Suddenly, Louis’ being hooked onto the line. He takes a large breath before being gently pushed off. His stomach drops when there’s suddenly nothing beneath his feet. He clings to the bit of harness under the wire and his feet flail about. But as he moves down the line, Louis forces his eyes open. The dry wind whizzes past him, ringing loudly in Louis’ ears. It’s not as fast as he expected to be, but Louis still feels like he’s on a rollercoaster or something. His voice is caught in his throat and he moves down the line completely silent, unlike Eleanor.

                Soon enough Louis hits the end of the line. His hook hits against some sort of stopper and the adventure comes to an end. Eleanor’s smiling up at him as Louis is being unhooked, but words cannot form properly. His mind is reeling quickly, still stunned and trying to catch up to his body. Stepping on the deck proves too much for Louis at first and he stumbles blankly.

                Eleanor catches Louis in her arms. He steadies himself before lifting his head and looking at her. Eleanor’s beaming from ear to ear, her excitement through the roof. Louis’ scans his eyes over her face and keeps landing back on Eleanor’s lips.

                “Well?” Eleanor questions, her smile still large, “Did you like it?”

                Louis catches his breath after a few seconds, “That was…fucking awesome.”

                Eleanor laughs, “I told you! Every time I go zip lining it still takes my breath away.”

                He watches as Eleanor’s eyes crinkle as she smiles. Her face is flushed by excitement and the hot summer sun beating down on them. Louis can see a bit of sweat on her lip and tries hard to not stare at her.

                _You take me breath away_ , he thinks in awe.

~~~

                A few hours later, there’s a plate of pork and shrimp tacos in front of them and margaritas next to their plates.

                Eleanor insisted on having dinner on the beach, and Louis wouldn’t dare turn down the offer. The hotel has these fancy lounge canopy bed thingys that’s close to the ocean and yet are shaded by palm trees and flowy thin sheets. The sun is just starting to set, and the light winds sweep over the ocean towards the shore, bringing a much-welcomed coolness. The beach isn’t too crowded, thankfully, making it somewhat quiet on the beach except for the rapid waves colliding into the shore.

                It’s a lovely scene, it really is. Los Cabos is truly gorgeous.

                But Eleanor is simply breathtaking.

                Louis hadn’t seen her for a couple of hours since they got back earlier that afternoon from ziplining. Louis retreated to his suite for a quick shower and a long nap. When he got to the beach, Eleanor looked just as revived as he felt. Earlier in the day, she didn’t have a drop of makeup on. But for dinner on the beach, she got all dolled up. Her long hair is braided to the side, and Louis couldn’t stop looking at her dark berry red lipstick she was wearing. But Eleanor had no mercy on him, because of course she chose to wear a crop top, strapless top that showed off her belly button, yet again, and a variety of bracelets in many colors and shapes lined up her right arm. On top of that, Eleanor had on a long shirt with a high slit on the side where he long, toned leg that peaked out through the slit teased Louis endless. Both the top and her skirt were pure white, making Eleanor truly look like a damn angel.

                But thankfully, Eleanor had ordered the margaritas.

                Louis took a sip of it his away, his eyes still on Eleanor.

                “I don’t even know if you eat pork or fish,” Eleanor comments once they’re on the bed, with some space between them. The spread of food makes Louis’ stomach grumble, but he can’t stop looking at her adorable frown. She goes on, “Shit, are you allergic to anything? Are you a vegetarian? What the fuck was I thinking ordering for you?!”

                “El,” Louis says on a chuckle. He stops for a second, realizing he’s used a nickname on her and waits to see her reaction. Thankfully, she doesn’t seem too bothered by it. Louis thinks it might have to do with her still focused on the food.

                “I love tacos,” he says simply, “I don’t care what the Hell is in them—I love them! And no I’m not a vegetarian. Remember on the plane when they served lunch? I had what they called beef stroganoff.”

                Eleanor relaxes a bit, and even giggles. Louis loves hearing her laugh, and loves being the one that makes her laugh.

                God, he scolds himself. Stop being over the moon for someone you just met!

                “Oh yeah that’s right! The face you made when you took your first bit was priceless.”

                Eleanor’s voice trails off by the end, and her face grows sheepish. Louis smirks, knowing full well that Eleanor was staring at him on the flight. She didn’t seemed so ashamed of it before when Louis didn’t know she was watching him, but now she’s grown so shy when she reveals she stared at him. It’s cute, like really fucking cute.

                Louis choses not the comment on it, “The tacos smell amazing! And thanks for the drink.”

                The two dig in then. The spices on the pork pairs nicely with the cool refreshing alcohol. It’s a perfect night, a perfect setting that Louis had pictured he’d spend with Perrie.

                _No_ , he stops himself. _Stop thinking of her!_

                “So, Eleanor,” Louis says after he finishes off his first taco, “How’d you get to be such a globetrotter?”

                Eleanor snorts softly as she finishes her bite. Louis watches as he wipes the corner of her lip and takes another sip of his drink. It’s almost halfway gone already.

                “Well,” Eleanor begins, her eyes wide, “I always loved the idea of seeing the world. I grew up in New York, on Statin Island with my grandparents. When I was little, my grandparents would sometimes take me out on weekend trips to New Haven or Vermont. I have an aunt that lives in Virginia on the beach, and we’d visit her at least once a summer. I fell in love in everything: packing, the actual journey to the destination, planning little activities we would do, exploring new places. I always loved it!”

                Louis smiles, imagining Eleanor as a little girl. But he pulls a face, “Wait you like packing?” Eleanor laughs, bright and pure.

                “It’s not so bad if you know what you’re doing,” she says with a shrug.

                “So how did you start your blog?” Louis asks.

                “I started following all these traveling photography accounts on Instagram, and I noticed a lot of them had blogs about the places they visited,” Eleanor explains, “So I decided to create my own blog. I posted about past trips I took, along with pictures and any sort of suggestions of where to go and what to do in these cities. Eventually, I started going on more trips with my grandparents, and I wrote about those trips too. I saved up to go to Europe for three weeks and I blog about every city I was in. I always made sure to recommend an attraction or a restaurant I liked, just so my readers had options if they were going to the same places I was.

“Over time, I gained more followers. Small companies started contacting me and I was able to put up some advertising on my blog. I worked at the time as a sale person for Hollister.”

Louis snorts around the rim of his glass, “Hollister?!”

“I made decent money,” Eleanor retorts, and then admits, “Plus I was young and clueless and thought Hollister was fashion.”

“We all had a fashion faux pas,” Louis agrees, grimacing, “I used to think red jeans with suspenders looked good.”

Eleanor laughs, her hand touching Louis’ shoulder gently. It’s a quick brief moment that her hand is on him, and it goes by so fast that by the time he realizes she’s touched up like that, Eleanor has already pulled back her hand, much to Louis’ dismay.

“I bet you’d good in red jeans,” she flatters him, sounding almost flirty. A toothy grin stretches over her lips as she stares at him for another second before going on, “I didn’t go to college, it just never felt right to me. I figured I could learn so much more by going out into the world and experiencing it all first hand. Thankfully, my blog allowed me to do that. I saved up as much as I could and went all over the place—Australia, Thailand, Japan, Peru.”

Louis’ exhales, impressed, “Fuck, I wish I could travel more. I’d love that.”

“Well,” Eleanor muses, looking awfully cute and way too sincere, “If you like, I have several trips lined up after this one. You can tag along.”

“Yeah?” Louis plays along, though it feels like both him and Eleanor sense that their relationship is like passing ships in the night. She’s wonderful, truly amazing and Louis can’t thank her enough for agreeing to do something like this for him. But this is fantasy, Eleanor’s life is fantasy. Louis’ is painfully realistic.

Eleanor nods, biting her lip as she does so, “Next I’m off to Canada next for a couple of weeks, Victoria, Canada. Then I’m heading down to Kentucky to some college town called Brea. It sounds quant and charming—two things my readers love. And then I’ll finish off the summer with a trip to Napa, to taking in summer’s final glow amongst the vineyards and the taste the sweet grapes its’ summer rays brought to the world.

“Wow,” Louis breathes out at the last sentence. Eleanor giggles sheepishly.

“Yeah, I sometimes get carried away, being a writer and all.”

“Ah,” Louis nods, understanding, “You’re really good at that.”

And Louis is probably only imagining that deep flush on Eleanor’s cheeks. She must have forgotten to put sunscreen on. But he definitely is not imagining the way Eleanor’s gaze has softened. No, there’s no way he could conjure up a look like that. 

“Thank you, Louis.”

Louis takes a sip of water from the bottle he brought with him, “So all this traveling, to you plan out times to see your family?”

“Um,” Eleanor responds, sounding unsure for the first time since Louis’ known her. He frowns at her.

“Oh, I’m sorry. You, uh, don’t have to answer that—”

“No, no—it’s fine,” Eleanor insists, managing a tiny grin, “You’re brutally honest with each other, yeah? You told me so very personal stuff on the first day we met. The least I could do is return the favor.”

Louis rolls his eyes at that.

“I’m an only child,” she tells him, “My, ah…my mom abandoned me at her parents’ house when I was a toddler. I’ve never seen her since and she never did tell my grandparents who my dad was. They said they figured that my mom didn’t know, so I’ve never met my dad either.”

Louis’ stomach twists, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Eleanor says easily, shrugging, “I guess I have a bit of my mom’s spirit in me. My grandparents say that she was a wonderer too, but in more of a bad way I suppose? She could never quiet settle down long enough. I think having a child and being a mother to her sounded like a good idea at first. But in reality, she couldn’t handle giving up her life to raise another human.”

“I can’t imagine,” Louis sighs, “My mom was like supermom, she was always there for us. And let me tell ya, that’s a fucking miracle because there’s seven of us.”

“Jesus!” Eleanor gasps. Louis chuckles.

“Yeah, it’s loud and crazy. There’s two sets of twins in my siblings, with the youngest set being twenty years younger than me,” Eleanor’s eyes widen slightly at that. Louis’ used to worse looks when he mentions that to people, “But I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love all my siblings, and my mom is sorta the one that somehow manages to keep all the chaos in check.”

Eleanor smiles, forlorn, “Sounds like you got quite the mom there.” Louis bites his lip, and on a whim convinces himself to say this.

“I’m sorry you don’t have a mom like that, El.” But Eleanor waves her hand.

“My grandparents were amazing, really! They gave me a love for adventure and a curiosity for the world. They were the best family I could ever ask for,” he gaze drops and her eyes grown sad, “They died, about four years ago within months of each other.”

Louis’ heart clinches in his chest. He swallows thickly, “I’m sorry, El.”

“Don’t be,” she says, focusing more on her half-eaten taco, “Having to watch them both suffer from different illnesses for so long—let’s just say it’s for the best they’re not suffering anymore.”

Louis looks down and nods, not wanting to push any farther.

His phone rings in his pocket, vibrating against his thigh.

“Sorry,” he mumbles to Eleanor as he quickly takes it out. He sees his ex’s name flash across the screen, feeling instantly queasy at Perrie’s name. He rejects the call and tucks his phone back in his pocket. He finishes off the rest of his margarita in one gulp.

Eleanor observes, “Everything okay?”

“Just my ex,” Louis mutters, distastefully.

“Oh,” Eleanor sighs awkwardly.

Louis shakes his head and scoffs, “She—I fucking told her we’re through, that I’ll never forgive her for this and our relationship would never be the same. But, I dunno. She still calls me a couple times a day, and I just ignore her every time she does.”

“Good,” Eleanor agrees. Louis nearly jolts out of the bed when Eleanor places her hand on his upper forearm. First it was on the shoulder and now it’s on the upper arm. Louis hopes this trend continues. He likes Eleanor touching him.

“Because she doesn’t deserve you, Louis,” she informs him, her voice lower than before, “You don’t own your ex shit, not after all she’s done to you. Any woman who cheats on you Louis is fucking out of their mind.”

                He knows this isn’t right. Louis knows he shouldn’t be having feelings for another woman so soon after his failed wedding. If things hadn’t happened the way they did, Louis would be here in Los Cabos with his wife, the woman he loved with everything he had. He would have never met Eleanor, and they wouldn’t be having this weird yet hot sexual tension thingy going on right now.

                And yet, here Louis is on this gorgeous Mexican dream vacation with a woman he barely knows but yearns to learn everything about her and craves any touch she gives him.

                “Thanks, Els,” Louis sighs, feeling weak almost. He bites his lips and drags his gaze away from Eleanor to look at the sunset.

                Eleanor comments, sighing dreamily, “Such a gorgeous sunset.”

                Louis nods and inspiration strikes.

                “C’mon,” he says and reaches for his camera on the bed.

                Eleanor follows him to the shore, with Louis staying back a few feet to get to perfect location for the pictures. At first, Eleanor’s a rather shy model, Louis’ learned. He looked over the pictures from ziplining today, and he found that over half of them were of Eleanor bashfully looking down, with a small smile and her eyelashes fanned out.

                She’s doing the same thing now on the beach in front of the sun set.

                “That’s great!” He shouts over the rushing waves, “But, I think with the wind blowing the way it is, your hair would look great down—”

                Eleanor yells, “What?”

                “Your hair!” Louis repeats himself, “Let down your hair.” Eleanor nods and does as she’s told, her quick fingers unknotting her braid and loosening up the strands, revealing long amber waves and drape over Eleanor’s shoulder. In a moment, the wind picks up some of her hair and moves it softly over her face as Eleanor looks off in the distance for a pose.

                Louis takes a few pictures, each one looking gorgeous. Then a dangerous look comes over Eleanor, and her bashfulness seems to have vanished in an instant. Her fingers grab the material of her skirt around where the slit of the skirt comes together. Louis’ throat feels painfully dry as Eleanor shows off her leg, and he can’t stop looking at her toned upper thigh.

                She’s teasing him—she’s openly flirting with he.

                Louis takes her pictures without even looking through the lens. He knows they’re perfect, can feel how perfect they are.

                “Hey! Hey Eleanor and Louis!” Louis drops his head and sighs annoyingly at Harry’s voice.

                Eleanor breaks eye contact with Louis to look at the young men from Canada approaching them. Both Harry and Liam look excited to see them again, which is nice and all. But Eleanor was flirting with him!

“Hey guys!” Liam greets them once they’re close by, “How was your day?”

Louis speaks up first, “Great! We went ziplining.”

“Cool!” Harry says, turning to Eleanor, “Will we get to see pictures of that on your next blog post?”

“Of course,” Eleanor chuckles, sounding delighted by his eagerness, “So what did you two do today?”

“We went whale watching out in the ocean!” Harry says happily, “Oh it was just wonderful! Whales are such beautiful creatures.”

Louis smirks as he sees Liam looking at Harry in pure awe.

“Ohh, we’ll have to try and squeeze that in, right Louis?” Eleanor asks, her hand rubbing her shoulder gently. Louis just swallows thickly and nods at her, making Eleanor grin.

Liam chimes in, “Harry and I are gonna play some soccer on the beach if you two want to join.” Louis notices the soccer ball Liam is carrying under his arm.

“Fuck, I haven’t played soccer in years,” Louis states.

Eleanor asks, curious, “You used to play?”

“Yeah,” Louis nods, smiling dopily at the soccer ball, “I mean, I wasn’t good enough to go professional, but I was good enough to land a scholarship for college because of it.”

“I used to play too,” Liam boasts, “I was a center.”

Louis chuckles, “Yeah I didn’t have the long legs for center. But I killed it as a midfielder,” he looks to Harry and politely asks, “Do you play Harry?”

Liam’s billowing laugh doesn’t match well with Harry’s frown.

“I’m not the most…poised person,” Harry says.

Once Liam finishes his laughing, he tells Louis, “H is like Bambi on field. Running and kicking isn’t his strong suit.”

“When the Hell am I ever going to need to run and kick something at the same time in my life besides soccer?!” Harry grumbles, but his face breaks as he looks at Liam chuckling.

Louis notices this. Interesting.

Eleanor nudges him then, “You should play with them.”

“Really?” Louis asks, his eyebrow furrowed. Eleanor grins, positively wicked.

“Have some fun, Louis,” she tells him, “I’ll just be over on the bed watching you guys.”

Louis’ chest rabbets, knowing damn well that Eleanor wouldn’t be watching Harry or Liam. The thought of Eleanor staring at him should creep him out, but it doesn’t. It sounds fucking hot.

Eleanor already has him in her grasp.

Louis was in trouble, but he doesn’t mind it.

Liam pipes up then, “Sounds like plan then, yeah? Just feel free to duck whenever Harry kicks the ball to you, Louis.”

“I’m not that bad!” Harry retorts.

The three men form a triangle on the beach, with about ten feet of space between each other. Louis looks over his shoulder and spots Eleanor. She’s back to lounging on the canopy day bed and looks like a fucking dream with the sheer white cloth on the canopy blowing in the breeze and her margarita glass raised to her berry colored lips. She cocks an eye brow at him and tips her drink to his directions before taking a sip, her lips smiling around the rim of her glass.

It’s hard to kick a ball around with the guys when Louis knows Eleanor’s watching him. He tries his best to put on a good show for her, to be a little bit flirtatious with her as she is with him. So Louis focuses on the ball, making sure he kicks as best as he can. He even throws in a bit of fancy foot work, such as kicking the ball behind him and making it go over his head, or bouncing the ball up on his knees a few times before kicking it back to Liam.

Louis is dying to look over his shoulder and see Eleanor.

The men banter for a while as they kick the ball to each other. The sun is just about set on the horizon, but it’s still pretty humid out. The dry summer night and playing soccer has Louis working up a sweat. He pauses the game briefly once he feels his button up shirt cling to his back. That’s when Louis turns around and sees Eleanor for the first time in a half hour. She looks perfectly content at a distance, and seemingly unphased by Louis.

But as he approaches the canopy bed, he notices how dark Eleanor’s eyes are under the outdoor doors of the hotel. Louis quickly unbuttons his shirt, his eyes never leaving Eleanor. He flushes self consciously as Eleanor freely watches him, her eyes following down each button Louis unhooks. When he comes to the bed, Louis shucks off his shirt before giving himself too much time to think. He smirks down at Eleanor, who is still lounging on her side on the bed. But now, presented with Louis’ naked chest, she doesn’t look nearly as cool, calm and collected as she did before. Her gaze slowly travels downward before shooting back up at Louis and gives him a coy look.

The woman has no shame.

Louis fucking loves it though.

“Will you watch this for me?” Louis asks. Eleanor nods mutely as she tips back the rest of her drink in one gulp. Louis’ lips curl fondly as she drops his shirt next to Eleanor.

When Louis jogs back to Harry and Liam, he briefly hears Eleanor telling a waiter passing by that she wants another margarita.

And Louis can’t help but feel proud of himself.

~~~

                “I don’t get it,” Niall says over the phone, his voice slightly muffled, “You like this girl, yeah? And she seems really fucking into you. So what’s the problem?”

                Louis sighs as he leans against the banister of the deck outside his room, his arm hanging off the edge. It overlooks the ocean, and from this high up Louis can see early morning fishing boats far out from shore. The morning is cool, but thankfully there’s not too breezy. The rising sun hits the back of Louis’ arms, feeling comfortable in just a tank top and his boxers. Thankfully, the beach below finds hardly any people yet, minus a few runners out for a morning jog on the beach. It’s just peaceful, so peaceful

                “Ni,” he exhales, shrugging slightly as he looks out at the ocean, “It’s too soon—right? I mean, this is all just happening really fast. I dunno.”

                Niall responds, “But you like Eleanor right? I mean, Lou—you’re not one to just flirt with any woman. You’re normally so slow and shy, taking months to get to know a girl and become friends before exploring more.”

                “I know,” Louis sighs as he rubs his face tiredly. He’s been up half the night trying to figure this shit all out, “You’re right, I don’t know El enough to—”

                “No, Tommo—that’s not what I’m saying,” Niall explains. Louis rolls his eyes as he hears Niall chewing on his lunch, a sandwich as Niall told him. Fuck time zone differences honestly, because Louis’ still waiting for his breakfast to arrive.

                Niall continues after he audibility swallows, “I’m saying this is a good thing, yeah? The fact that you sense a strong connection with Eleanor right off the bat. I’d take that shit as a good sign.”

                “I dunno,” Louis sighs, shaking his head at himself as he mumbles, “My judgement on people’s character has been wrong before.”

                Silence follows for a moment before Niall says, “Fuck Lou. You gotta stop blaming yourself for what happened.”

                “I—I must have done something wrong,” Louis whispers, “Why would she do that Niall? Why did she fucking do that to me?”

                Niall says simply, unabashed, “Because Perrie wasn’t thinking about you at all Louis—that’s the whole point of having affairs. She was only thinking of herself. You did nothing wrong, she made her decisions on her own.”

                “That makes it worse, somehow,” Louis says, making a face.

                “Yeah it fucking sucks,” Niall replies, and gives a shallow, breathy laugh, “D’ya know she tried calling me? Has called me every day for the last three days.”

                Louis’ ears perk up, “Really?”

                “I answered last night, after ignoring her for days,” he explains, “And she—God, Lou. She found out somehow that you’re out of town and is on some sort of crazed manhunt looking for you. She told me she’s tried calling some of your sisters to figure out where you are.”

                “Fuck,” Louis sighs.

                Niall agrees with a scoff, “Yeah, the fucking nerve of her—calling the younger sisters of the ex-fiancé you cheated on him to find said ex-fiancé,” Louis winces at this, and Niall must have sense it, “Sorry, man.”

                “God, why does she want to talk to me?” Louis asks out loud, “She’s been calling me a least twice a day since the rehearsal party, but I told Perrie I didn’t want to see her again.”

                “She’s being selfish, Lou,” Niall says again, “She wants to have a change to explain herself, to do right by you. Or fuck, I dunno, maybe she thinks she can sort all this shit out and still have a life with you.”

                Louis’ heart skips a beat, “Y-You really think—”

                “Louis I swear to God, you better not be thinking about taking her back.”

                “But,” Louis gulps, his head aching, “But we were together for years.”

                Niall painfully reminds him, “Yeah but she spent most of the last year cheating on you, Louis. While you worked your ass off to make sure she got to have her dream wedding, she was sucking off Zayn’s dick.”

                Louis pinches the bridge of his nose. He’s still so angry, so fucking furious that Perrie and Zayn did this to him.

                “I’m sorry, Lou,” Niall says, “It fucking pisses me off how this all went down, how it humiliated you so much, Louis. You deserve better than that Lou.”

                The earnestness in his friend’s voice manages to make Louis smile.

                “Thanks man.”

                “Go for it with Eleanor,” Niall tells him, “Don’t be scared to out on a limb.”

                Louis sighs, “But it’s too soon.”

                “No it’s not!” Niall stresses, “I think it’s fucking amazing that everything you’ve been through, you’re able to still have feelings for anyone. Fuck, if you told me today you thought you liked _me_ I would take you out for Red Sox’s game as our first date.”

                Louis chuckles, grimacing slightly, “You don’t have to worry about that, Ni. I have no feelings for you.”

                “Oh well, your loss,” Niall muses, “Just trust your feelings, Lou. Don’t prevent shit from happening with Eleanor because you’re scared it’s too soon.”

                Louis doesn’t tell Niall that’s only part of his fears.

                He’s scared, so fucking scared Eleanor will hurt him. Louis spent most of the night going over this. He thought about how he knew Perrie for nearly five years and was in a relationship with him for four of them. He knew her for so long, and she betrayed him and hurt him in such a way that Louis’ barely holding onto threads of himself.

But with Eleanor, he’s only known her for not even five days. He has a good feeling about her, and thinks she’s fucking amazing, but in some ways it’s more likely that she will hurt him too in some way. Louis figures he can’t take two drastic heartbreaks back to back.

“I’ll try,” Louis promises Niall before they end the call, “I’ll really fucking try.”

Thankfully breakfast arrives after his call with Niall, and Louis wolfs down a pancake, some bacon and an orange for good measure. Louis then takes a quick shower and the piping hot water soothes his tight muscles. He quickly shaves with his towel wrapped around his waist. He’s got a few minutes to finish getting ready before Eleanor’s meant to come to his room.

But just as Louis’ toweling off his face after his shave, there’s a knock on his door.

Louis steps out of the bathroom and goes to the door.

“Lou?” he hears through the door, “It’s me, Eleanor.”

God. Just hearing Eleanor call him Lou does things to him.

Louis opens the door quickly, not wanting to leave Eleanor out in the dust. But he soon realizes his topless again. It’s evident though in Eleanor’s reaction, when she locks eyes with Louis for just a small second before her gaze drops to his chest quickly and back up at his eyes. She giggles awkwardly.

“We have to stop meeting up like this,” Louis tries, flashing a wide grin.

Eleanor merely shrugs, her gorgeous eyes bright and playful, “I don’t mind.”

Louis feels flushed as Eleanor steps inside his room. He watches her look about the suite as she moves farther inside. Her fingers glide on top of the sheer sheets on top of the canopy bed. Louis can’t help but star at the back of Eleanor’s long, lean legs because of course she’s wearing short jeans again, with a soft pink Adidas short sleeved shirt and an old pair of sneakers. She’s got her lavender backpack slung on her forearm and Louis is dying to reach out and touch her long, flowy hair.

“I’ll um,” Louis says sheepishly, “Just grab my clothes and change in the bathroom real quick.”

Eleanor nods and looks over her shoulder, giving him a soft smile that shakes him to the core.

“Take your time,” she tells him simply. Once Louis locks himself in the bathroom with a tank top and a pair of 

Within twenty minutes, Eleanor and Louis are stepping out of the front doors of the hotel, with a car waiting for them. Louis stops briefly when he sees it, and his jaw drops when the driver opens the back-car door for Eleanor. When she doesn’t sense his presence, Eleanor turns around. Louis can’t see her eyes, thanks to the sunglasses, but there’s a small, cute little pout drawn up on her lips.

“What?” she asks, dumbfounded.

Louis scoffs, shaking his head as he comes up to her. He speaks from the corner of his mouth, “A Range Rover—really?”

“Well I didn’t choose this car,” Eleanor retorts, “I just told Santiago I needed a car for the day and he set me up with this.

Louis replies, “Damn, I wish I was a better writer.” That makes Eleanor chuckle and she steps aside to let Louis in the car first.

                And then they’re off for another adventure.

~~~

Louis’ never seen anything like this; the crystal-clear ocean water, hundreds of fish of all colors and sizes swimming fast just a foot or so beneath him, the sun shining on the sand and rainbow-colored array or coral reef. It all seems too beautiful to be real, and Louis can’t believe his luck that he gets to see this in person.

It was all truly breath taking.

Louis notices Eleanor coming up out of the water through his goggles. He follows suit, taking the snorkel out of his mouth and lifting the goggles onto his head once he’s above water. The wade together in the shallow water, with Louis being able to feel the tops of seaweed in his toes as he stretches them out. Before taking this trip, Louis never thought about snorkeling before. But now that he’s experienced it firsthand, he’s a big fan of it.

“Well?” Eleanor asks. She still has her goggles on, which is a shame because Louis can’t see her eyes. But also, she somehow looks adorable in them, which is weird because they take up half of her face.

Louis grins, “That’s fucking awesome!” he says, still catching his breath, “That—it was so fucking clear! I didn’t think it would be, but holy shit! And did you see the starfish down there? And that one huge fish that swam by?”

“Looks like someone liked it,” Eleanor laughs, “I can’t blame you though. I went for the first time in New Zealand and it took my breath away too.”

Jealously pulls at Louis’ chest, “That must have been amazing.”

“It was,” Eleanor nods, but then suddenly looks at Louis with pure fondness and serious, “But I liked snorkeling this time around. It’s much better company.”

Okay, so. Louis knows that Eleanor likes hanging out with him.

That’s a plus, or rather a huge plus.

They get out of the water to have lunch. Louis lags behind, sneaky shy looks of Eleanor’s muscular thighs and pert ass as the walk up the shore. Of course, she had to wear a tiny red bikini that showed off her perfect tan. Louis thinks maybe she’s doing this all on purpose, to torture him. And if that is Eleanor’s plan, then it’s certainly working.

Ten minutes later, Louis’ poking at some ominous looking stuff in a plastic bowl with his fork. Eleanor’s laid out a blanket she brought with her on the dry, sandy shore for a makeshift picnic lunch on the beach. It’s a lovely day for a beach picnic, Louis thinks, even if the sun is hotter then Hell on his skin. He’s mostly dried off already just from the sun.

“So,” Louis says, his upper lip stiff, “What’s this again?”

Eleanor flips her hair over her shoulder, “It’s ceviche. It’s like the Latin-American version of poke. Have you ever had that before?”

“No,” Louis tells her earnestly. Eleanor sighs and gives him a pointed look, but it quickly turns into a smile.

“Oh Louis,” she chides lightly, “Ceviche is raw fish, usually tilapia, vegetables and lime juice.”

Louis gulps nervously down at his lunch. He shouldn’t have let Eleanor go and pick out his lunch for him at one of the sea sides restaurants nearby.

“This is raw fish?” He says, barely covering up his distaste. He watches in horror as Eleanor takes a forkful of that stuff up to her lips and eats it, even managing a pleasant smile while she chews.

“The acid in the lime cooks it somewhat,” Eleanor says. Louis still wrinkles his nose at this, and it prompts Eleanor to drop her hand to his thigh. Louis’ positive his mind freezes up for a few seconds because holy shit. It’s done in a playfully manner, as Eleanor just squeezes his thigh quickly before retracting her hand. But still, it leaves Louis frazzled to say the least.

“C’mon,” she prompts him, “Just try it—you’ll like it!”

Begrudgingly, Louis takes a bite of ceviche.

“Whoa,” he exhales once he’s chewed it up.

Eleanor smirks, “Told ya you’d like it.”

“It’s just,” Louis says, “That—it’s like so refreshing ya know? Like the fish is super fresh and the lime juice just brightens it up.”

“You’ll love poke then,” Eleanor tells him, “It’s like this but made with a different type of fish and more Asian ingredients.”

Louis shakes his head at her as he chews another bite, “Damn El, you know so much. I dunno shit compared to you.”

“Oh stop that!” Eleanor scolds him, “You take better pictures then I do, that’s for sure.”

                “That’s true,” Louis shrugs, agreeing, “Oh by the way, I think I took some pretty sick pictures when we were snorkeling. You wanna see?”

                Louis hands over his camera to Eleanor, still encased in the waterproof case Louis brought. For the next few minutes, Louis preens under her praise for each picture he took. Louis doesn’t look at his own pictures, he watches Eleanor’s reaction to them instead. He finds her rambling on about fish and the lighting and seeing the way her lips curl up at each photo and how high her voice gets when she’s excited is way more intriguing then looking at his own pictures.

                “I like this one,” Eleanor says, showing Louis. Ah yes, Louis would have to agree. He loves that picture of Eleanor. It shows her a foot or so above a school of colorful fish swimming in the same direction. It looks like Eleanor’s following them, making the photo not only beautiful but almost comical. The sun is shining down on her in the background, casting the perfect amount of light.

                Louis nods, “I like it too.”

                “You’re so talented, Lou,” Eleanor comments as she hands back his camera. Her lips at in a tight line before she asks, “You ever thought about doing photography as a career?”

                “Of course, I have,” Louis shrugs, “I still think about it loads of times.”

                Eleanor shakes her head, “Then why don’t you do it? Give up your day job and put all your focus on your photography business?”

                “It’s too risky,” Louis says, this throat tight, “I…”

                Eleanor nudges his side gently, “What Lou?” Louis closes his eyes and sighs.

                “My mom and my stepdad got divorced when I was young,” he starts to explains, “I mean, my biological dad left my mom when I was a few weeks old—”

                “Fucking bastard,” Eleanor mutters. Louis smiles a little, just for Eleanor.

                “So my stepdad, Mark, was basically my dad, until he left when I was around fifteen. Suddenly, I was the man of the house. My mom worked a shit ton of hours at the hospital, where she worked as a nurse. But there were five of us kids, and money was always tight. I hated seeing how stressed she got over paying bills and putting food on the table for all of us. She told me not to worry all the time, but how could I not? I saw how much my mom worried over money, and I couldn’t just stand there and not worry about it. I was the man of the house by then, and I couldn’t let my mom worry all by herself.

                “I started taking jobs here and there, working for cash mainly because I was still under age. But I made the choice then that I can’t just focus on my hobbies, that I needed to be realistic. So I focused on my strengths in math and finance for my career, and started my side photography business for extra money for my family.”

                Eleanor is kind when she replies, “I’m sorry that you had so much pressure on you at a young age Louis.”

                “It wasn’t like that though,” Louis insists, “My mom—she never made me work for money. She wanted me to be a kid still, but I just couldn’t do that. I still can’t do that.”

                “But Lou,” she responds, “I don’t think your family would want you to not do something that doesn’t make you happy.”

                Louis retorts weakly, “It’s not that I’m unhappy. I like being an accountant. I mean, it’s not fun really but I like to think I’m helping people.”

                “Lou—” she starts, and Louis doesn’t want this conversation to go on.

                “I have six younger siblings that need to go to college,” he says softly, “And yeah, my mom remarried a great guy and things seem financially better off but still. They need my help and I—as much as it would be cool to just do photography, I can’t afford to do that. My family can’t afford to do that.”

                Louis looks out at the ocean, taking in the much-needed silence. He spots a small collection of seagulls out in the ocean hundreds of miles off shore. He makes himself think about their actions, why they’re flying in circles in that exact spot? Louis can’t bring himself to look at Eleanor. He’s said too much, gone way too personal too quickly. He’s probably scared Eleanor off, or even offended her somehow. This certainly wasn’t the kind of light lunch conversation Louis was striving for.

                But then.

                “I’m sorry, Louis,” Eleanor sighs, surprising Louis, “It’s just—I sometimes forget how much of a luxury it is to do what I do. That I get paid for doing something I love. I realize not everyone else can have that same privilege and I feel like shit for pressuring you.”

                “You’re not, you—” Louis shakes his head, “I think it’s fucking amazing that you make a living on all this. I think that’s fantastic! And you shouldn’t feel guilty about that.”

                Eleanor pauses before admitting, “You know, some critics of my blog think that I’ve lost base on reality. That I’m some sort of stuck up, rich bitch that does nothing but vacations all the time.”

                “Well they’re dead wrong,” Louis huffs.

                “You barely know me,” Eleanor retorts.

                “And you barely know me!” Louis responds, and chuckles, “And yet, you have given me this dream vacation. If that doesn’t say you’re selfless and completely not a stuck-up bitch I dunno what does.”

                When Louis looks back over his shoulder, he sees Eleanor unsurely looking at the ground. He hates the little pout on her face, hates that he finds it fucking adorable.

                “C’mon,” he insists, and pulls Eleanor up from the ground, “We need more shots of you in the water.”

                “Why?” Eleanor asks. Louis isn’t brave enough to tell her it’s because she’s fucking hot.

                “I’m sure your fans will appreciate it,” he says instead.

                Eleanor scoffs at him, “Lou, you know I run a travel blog, right? I mainly post pictures of the cities I’m in and the activities I do.”

                “Well, um,” Louis begins, awkwardly, “I mean…I haven’t checked out your blog yet, but—”

                “What?!” Eleanor yells over the noisy ocean behind her. Louis can tell she’s not upset by this and is only mocking him, “You—seriously?! After all this time?”

                “Hey I’m technically on vacation!” Louis retorts. Eleanor laughs and—it’s just perfect. The sun is shining on her in just a way that enhances her natural beauty. How could Louis not take a sneaky photo of her?

                Eleanor caves, “Alright. But don’t be surprised when I ambush you with my blog posts later on.”

                “Duly noted,” Louis says, looking through his camera lens.

                Eleanor models for him for the next few minutes, and Louis is all too eager to take her picture. Eventually, she moves into the water on her own influence and Louis follows her lead, inching closer towards her. The tide comes and goes, coming half way up to Louis’ thigh but he can’t be bothered with that because Louis can’t stop looking at Eleanor. She poses away from the camera, facing the ocean only to look over her shoulder at Louis. She has a cheeky grin on her lips, one that makes Louis gulp thickly and weak in the knees.

                “Enough pictures!” Eleanor insists after a while. She reaches out toward Louis with one arm, “Come in the water Louis, it’s so nice!”

                So Louis hangs his camera around his neck and goes towards Eleanor, because for some reason, she wants to be closer to him. They walk together for a while in the shallow waters, and Eleanor keeps touching the back of Louis’ arm, and Louis tries not to over think what it means. The wind picks up, blowing some of Eleanor’s long strands of hair into Louis’ face. He doesn’t mind it though, not when it smells like saltwater and sunshine. It’s perfect, just being here with Eleanor feels perfect.

                “I can’t get over how beautiful it is here,” Eleanor says in awe. Louis wishes he were brave enough to tell her that she’s more beautiful than the ocean or the sun. Because he believes it, as silly as it may seem. He hardly knows her and yet, Louis can’t ignore the strong feelings he as for her.

                Just as he’s about to say something—

                “OW!” Louis yells at the suddenly stinging pain in his right foot. He nearly falls back in the water, but Eleanor’s hands are steadying him, “Holy— _fuck!_ ”

                “Louis? What’s wrong?” Eleanor questions.

                Louis hisses, “I-I dunno. I must’ve stepped in something—shit!”

                “Fuck, let me see,” Eleanor exhales, squatting down in the water in front of Louis. He uses his hands to balance himself on Eleanor’s shoulders as he lifts his leg up out of the water. There are multiple tiny blackish-brown dots on the side of his foot and Louis is stunned by them.

                Eleanor informs him, “You must have stepped on a sea urchin.”

                “Shit!” Louis exhales.

                “Alright, enough adventures for today. We need to get you to a medic. I think you should be okay, sea urchins are pretty harmless. But you might need to take it easy for a couple of days.”

                Louis’ never been more thankful for Eleanor then when she leads him out of the ocean with her letting Louis use her body as a crutch as he walks.

                And that’s saying something, considering how much Louis already likes her.

~~~

                “You don’t have to do this,” Louis tells her for the eight time.

                Eleanor settles in the mattress next to Louis with the remote in her hand. She looks over to him and smiles, “For the last time Lou, I’m not letting you sulk all by yourself in here. It’s my fault you’re cooped up in here for the night—”

                “Stop saying that,” Louis laments again. Louis never even heard of a sea urchin before today—how the fuck was he supposed to know to look out for them in shallow waters? But Eleanor goes on.

                “Plus, you’re due to change your bandages in a couple of hours. You’ll need my help for that, so there’s really no point in leaving now just to come back in a little while.”

                Louis scoffs, because he’s a twenty-seven year old man. Of fucking _course_ he can change gauze on a wound. She doesn’t need to stay in his hotel room with him all night, because he feels fine. But he wouldn’t deny Eleanor’s help, especially not when she gave to his door with every snack from the vending machine in her arms and the promise of having a movie night to cheer him up. The gesture is sweet and totally unexpected.

                “Thanks Els,” he finally says, and it’s worth it to see Eleanor smile.

                 “No prob,” she promises him, sighing as the looks to the TV. She flips through the channel before stopping on one, “Oo! They have _Grease_ playing!”

                Louis smirks, smiling dopily at the opening credits, “You know, I played Danny when I was a senior in the high school musical.”

                “No fucking way!” Eleanor gasps, and then pops a BBQ chip in her mouth, “I need videos or a picture of you as Danny, or something!”

                “Hell no!” Louis retorts, “I looked so bad—like really fucking terrible.”

                Eleanor coos, nudging her elbow lightly into his side, “Aw Lou—I bet you were adorable.”

                “That’s worse, somehow!”

                “C’mon!” she begs, “I’m trying so hard to picture you in a leather jacket.”

                And well.

                “I guess—I mean, the leather jacket did kinda make me look cool.”

                (Or rather, Louis felt cool in a leather jacket)

                Eleanor grins like a cat, “Yeah? Now I have to see pictures of this!”

                Begrudgingly, Louis fishes out his phone and digs through his Facebook app. He hardly uses Facebook anymore these days, but back when he was in high school he could barely stay off the app. Thankfully, after a little while of digging through his pictures, Louis hands over his phone to Eleanor, his face in a deep grimace.

                “Mind you,” Louis warns, “this was ten years ago—”

                “Oh my GOD!” Eleanor squeals. Louis groans when he sees her zooming in on the photo, “You were fucking cute Louis!”       

                Louis cringes, “I wasn’t cute.”

                “No I mean—fuck,” Eleanor sighs, “I’m not being rude, Lou. Please don’t take it the wrong way. It’s just—it’s so sweet. I didn’t know you were so musically gifted.”

                “I’m not,” Louis insists with a laugh, “But for some reason, my drama teacher thought I was.”

                Much to Louis’ gratefulness, they focus on the movie. The munch on junk food while the hum along to the songs with their cheeks full. Louis can’t help himself and ends up staring at Eleanor for nearly all of _Summer Loving_. Eleanor does this cute little bopping dance move, with her arms moving about. She’s got a decent voice, and Louis daydreams with the idea of taking her to karaoke while they’re here.

                (Louis makes a mental note to later look up karaoke bars Los Cabos)

                When Sandra Dee comes on, Eleanor gasps.

                “I love this song!” She beams with delight, her smile bright.

Louis does not expect Eleanor to stand up on the mattress, suddenly looming above him. Well, Louis gulps, looking up at the insanely beautiful woman above him, this is interesting. The bed dips with each step she takes until she’s at the foot of the bed, her hips shimming with the music. Eleanor messes up her hair with her hands as the song begins, and she belts out each word correctly.

Louis just stares at her in awe, swearing up and down that Eleanor is an actual angel on Earth.

~~~

                Louis doesn’t have any regrets with his life.

                Seriously, not one. He’s never wronged someone before, never felt like he’s missed out on any education of career opportunities. Hell, he doesn’t even regret meeting Perrie or even getting engaged with her. Every single event of his life Louis has lived through, he knows he was destined to have and experience, learning new things about himself and the world along the way.

                Louis does, however, regret the fact that he waited so damn long before getting a full body massage.

                Maria, Louis’ utterly divine masseuse, may look like a petite Mexican woman with peppered curly hair and stands a foot shorter then Louis. But as she rolls her surprising strong hands up the center of Louis’ back and kneads his shoulders, he exhales a sigh that feels like he’s been holding in for ages and didn’t even know.

                “It’s nice, yeah?” Eleanor mutters. Louis can’t see her, both in part to being faced away from her and having his eyes closed. But she sounds half asleep, and Louis doesn’t blame her if she is. He’s barely keeping his own eyes open.

                Louis hums, long and low, “Fucking amazing.”

                “I’ve never had a massage out on the ocean before,” Eleanor responds quietly, her voice hardly carrying over the breezy ocean surrounding them, “This is pure Heaven.”

                Louis couldn’t agree more.

                Due to his foot injury the day before, Louis was told by the nurse at the resort to stay off his foot for a day or so. At first, Louis thought this would but a damper on his trip of a lifetime. But leave it up to Eleanor to find a way for him to enjoy his vacation other than being hauled up in his room for another day.

                The resort has a five-star spa that offers couple massages on a covered hut on a deck out in the ocean. Eleanor’s right, it is pure Heaven being out in the ocean, feeling the heat of the sun, yet being shielded from it and having the cool breeze all around them. The seagulls gawk in the distance, the waves hiss as the hit the sides of the dock, and the far-off murmurs from people on the beach. They all lull Louis, along with the salty ocean air.

                Maria rubs the back of Louis’ neck, going deep and thorough.

                Louis sees stars behind his eyes.

                “I feel like I’m floating on a cloud,” Louis confesses an hour later to Eleanor as they’re walking back to their hotel, “Like, damn. I swear I lost five pounds because of Maria.” It comes out as a joke, but he means it. It’s like Louis went into a temple and discovered nirvana in the form of a tiny Hispanic woman. 

                Eleanor chuckles, “Yeah, I feel that way every time I get a massage.”

                “I have to look up massage parlors in Boston,” Louis exhales, turning to Eleanor with serious eyes, “Do you think Maria would move to Boston?”

                “Why would anyone want to leave Los Cabos?” Eleanor retorts, and well. Louis looks out on the beach, the perfectly clear sky and the endless ocean surrounding it all. She has a good point.

                Louis asks, “So, beach for the rest of the day?” Eleanor nods, and Louis watches in wonder as Eleanor hoists up her mound of hair on top of her head, and fashions it quickly into a high, messy bun. How the Hell did she do that without looking in a mirror, and it actually looks good? Women are amazing.

                “Liam and Harry are probably already there,” she tells him, “I’m going to go back to my room and change real quick. See ya on the beach?”

                Louis nods, and shamelessly watches Eleanor walk away. Her tanned legs just do things to him.

                When Louis finds Liam and Harry not even ten minutes later, he spots Harry first, sitting under a palm tree. He’s pretty easy to find, in part because of his incredibly short yellow swimming trunks. But mainly because of his openly gawking a group of men playing volleyball on the beach. Louis looks in the group and then notices Liam’s one of the guys playing, and it’s shirtless too.

                Interesting, very interesting indeed.

                Harry doesn’t react to Louis at all when he approaches him, too seemingly entranced by Liam spiking the volleyball. Of course, Louis has to ruin Harry’s fun.

                “Hiya Harry!” he all but yells, causing the younger man to jolt up.

                Harry forces a causal smile, “Oh hi Louis! I didn’t see you.”

                “No shit,” Louis snorts, and allows himself to sit down beside Harry. He nods over in Liam’s direction, “Too focused on Liam?” he muses.

                A blush spreads over Harry’s cheeks, “That obvious?”

                “Painfully,” Louis stresses, “So what? You two dating?”

                Harry sighs longingly as he looks back at Liam, “I wish.” Louis frowns.

                “What? Liam’s not into dudes?”

                “No he is,” Harry tells him, “Li and I—we both have a very cavalier perspective on sexuality.”

                Ah that’s right, Louis thinks quickly, Harry did mention he was majoring in literature. Between spending time with him and Eleanor, Louis’ never experience such posh sounding sentences before.

                “Cavalier?” Louis prompts.

                Harry shrugs, “We fuck what we want to fuck, regardless of gender. We mainly go off on personality and attraction and see where it all leads us. Going to college has opened up our eyes in more ways than one.”

                “I bet,” Louis snorts, “But you’re into Liam as more than just a friend?”

                “Clearly,” Harry responds with no shame. Louis’ eyes widen slightly at his boldness.

                “So, what then? Why aren’t you two together?”

                Harry sighs rather dramatically as he tilts his head back to bask in the sun, “Because I’m an old soul, Louis. I read so many classic love stories and I—I just want to be swept off my feet. I can’t make the first move, Liam has to be the one.”

                “But how will he supposed to know to do anything if you don’t make a first move?” Louis points out. Harry snickers.

                “Liam is an incredible man with the biggest heart I’ve ever seen,” he explains, and exhales tiresome, “But he can be a bit dense at times. It takes him a while to realize things sometimes. One day, Liam will realize what I’ve always known is true—that we’re perfect for each other, and he’s come to me when he’s ready for my love and we’ll live happily ever after.”

                Louis blinks at Harry, still processing everything he’s said. Love has been a terrible subject for Louis as of late. Sure, he still believes in love, but maybe not for him. He thought Perrie was his everything, the perfect woman for him and was gladly going to spend the rest of his life with her. But then she broke his fucking heart into a million, tiny pieces and Louis stuck in the aftermath.

                “But, what if Liam never realizes you’re met to be together?” he ponders, his throat tight, “Or, what if he meets someone else? Or—”

                Harry stops him, “I have faith in Liam, and faith in everything that happens. Right now, I’m okay with flirty exchanges between us and I live off of every cute text Liam sends me. I live off of all the times Liam puts up watching Pride and Prejudice with me, even though he doesn’t understand it but he does so because I love that movie. Liam is my Mr. Darcy—he just needs time to realize it.”

                Harry just…looks so confident and at ease by all this. It almost infuriates Louis, but he admires and envies that sort of blind optimism of love so fucking much.

                “I wish you all the luck in the world Harry,” Louis tells him sincerely, “and that everything works out for you.”

                “I don’t need luck, Louis,” Harry tells him surely. He smirks, almost cockily, “I got fate on my side.”

                Well shit.

                “Fate’s on your side too, ya know,” Harry tells him earnestly, like he knows it for a fact.

                Louis shakes his head, but he’s got a huge smile on his lips, “You know, you sound like a damn Disney princess, Harry.”

                “I’m Merida, of course,” Harry jokes as he cards his fingers through his curls.

                “But she doesn’t get a prince charming in the end,” Louis’ cynical nature points out.

                Harry pauses for a while before folding, “Dammit Lou! Okay, forget I said that.”

                The two of them laugh for a moment, and Harry pushes Louis lightly on his chest. Louis falls back on the sand, and feels a shadow cast over him. He blinks to focus his eyes and his heart skips a beat when he sees Eleanor looking down at him.

                “What’s so funny?” she asks simply, as if she doesn’t have a fucking clue she’s the hottest girl on the beach and surely any person attracted to women aren’t all looking at her right now.

                Louis pushes himself up and brushes off the sand on his shirt as he looks Eleanor up and down. Another bikini, she’s in another bikini and Louis wonders just how many she packed for this trip. This time she’s sporting a black two piece with white lines on the edges and a matching cover-up, robe thingy that falls short to her upper thigh. And fuck, Eleanor looks good in black, like Morticia Addams vibes and Louis fucking loves it! A pair of silvery and very reflective and expensive looking sunglasses rest on her nose and she has a fruity drink in her hand, complete with a cherry on top of the ice.

                Eleanor looks like a dream, and Louis never wants to wake up.

                He feels stupidly special when Eleanor lays out her towel next to Louis and sits on top of it. She looks at him once she’s settled in and gives Louis a funny smile.

                “Well, what the Hell is so funny?” she asks again, and—right. Louis forgot she asked a question.

                “N-Nothing,” he stutters, and it makes Harry snort. Louis instantly regrets teasing Harry for being so obvious about his feelings for Liam, because now it seems that Louis’ crush on Eleanor is noticeable.

                Eleanor shrugs as she takes off her robe, “You two are so weird.”

                “Liam scored a point!” Harry chimes in excitedly, and effectively saving Louis’ ass. He’ll have to buy Harry a drink for that.

                Liam joins them soon enough, with his body glistening with sweat and his body ripe. Louis subtly shifts away from him, just because the scent is so strong, but Harry happily accepts a hug from him.

                Love sure does make people do strange things.

                “Hey Lou?” Eleanor asks, and Louis looks over to her. She’s taken the robe now, and oh. She’s facing away from Louis, her sculped back is just fucking right there in front of him. She casually moves her hair to the side and hands Louis a bottle, “Could you please but sun block on my back? I can never reach it.”

                _Okay Tommo,_ Louis mentally talks to himself as he takes the bottle _, You got this. Don’t think too much into it and be fucking COOL._

                “Sure,” he says weakly, and puts a blob of the sun lotion on his fingertips. He gets some on both hands and gulps thickly before moving them onto Eleanor’s back. He tries not to think of the how warm Eleanor’s skin feels on his hands. A tiny, quick exhale seems to come out of her lips as Louis firmly rubs the lotion into her shoulders, but Louis half convinces himself he didn’t hear anything. Eleanor is, after all, facing away from him. Maybe he heard something else?

But God it’s just—his hands move down Eleanor’s back, just under her ribcage and Louis feels her breathing, feels her taking in a sharp breath and it just. Eleanor just does things to him.

“Now your turn,” Eleanor insists once Louis’ slathered her back in sunblock. And well, the way Eleanor smirks at him, Louis can’t exactly say no, can he? Plus, skin cancer is not something Louis ever wants so with these factors in mind, Louis pulls off his shirt over his head.

It shouldn’t be weird, because Eleanor’s seen him shirtless before. But when the material is out of his eyes, and Louis flicks his fringe to the side, he sees Eleanor eyeing his chest and. Well, Louis’ felt this way before when she’s stared at him. But he’s still not quite used to the attention, the funny way his stomach twists when under her gaze.

At the slight touch of Eleanor’s fingers on his back, Louis shivers. Eleanor doesn’t notice it, or doesn’t acknowledge it at least, too focused on the task at hand. But damn, Louis feels so foolish for praising Maria before. Sure, she’s wonderful at her job, but Eleanor rubbing his back is unreal almost. Louis almost hates that Eleanor simply rubbing sun lotion on his back has him biting his lip, and his nails digging into his thighs.

Almost.

The beach slowly becomes quieter over the afternoon, with people dwindling down over time. Liam and Harry make good company, and Louis learns more interesting facts about them. Louis could easily see having them as acquaintances in his life, and if they lived closer together, they could probably end up being good friends. At the very least, Louis sees himself asking for Harry and Liam’s numbers, and looking them up on social media.

With Eleanor though, Louis’ not quite sure where things stand with her.

She spends most of the afternoon just to herself, seemingly satisfied with just basking under the sun and enjoying her drink. Eleanor adds in a comment here and there in the group conversation, but mainly just listens to the men talk. Louis pretends he hasn’t noticed Eleanor watching him half the time, but he feels her gaze on him. He feels a not as self-conscious about it before, now that he knows Eleanor better. It’s just all still pretty strange to Louis. For years, he only had Perrie and only focused on her. Now though, it’s just nice being checked out by another woman, especially one as great as Eleanor.

After an hour or so, Louis spots Eleanor pulling a notebook out of her bag. She lays out on her towel and begins to write with what looks like a blue ink pen on the page. She seems lost in her own thoughts, quickly jotting down notes on the lines. Louis so desperately wants to know what she’s writing about and tries to strain his neck to see over her shoulder. But there’s a shadow over the page and Louis can’t see a thing.

Eventually, Liam and Harry leave the beach, explaining to Louis that they’re taking a cooking class at the restaurant in the resort and were running late. They leave in a hurry, and Eleanor only has time to mutter a quick goodbye to them. Louis looks down beside her and sees she’s almost done with another page. Her smirks at the traces of smudged ink on the page because she’s writing so fast.

“What’cha writing?” Louis finally asks. Eleanor’s shoulders perk up at his voice and Louis must have startled her by accident. He snickers.

Eleanor smiles at him as she closes her book, “Just jotting down some ideas for my blog post about Los Cabos.”

And well, Louis’ chest sorta sinks a little at that. These past few days, he’s been living in a dream, far away from his life back home. Sure, Perrie still calls him once a day, but it’s so much easier to ignore her calls when he’s with Eleanor. It’s just a harsh reminder that this isn’t going to last, that in a few days, Louis’ gonna to say goodbye to Eleanor and they’ll never see each other again. He’ll go back home and have to deal with all the shit that’s still waiting for him in Boston.

Louis shakes his head and pushes these thoughts away.

“So you started writing for blog post?” he asks.

Eleanor shakes her head as she sits up, mimicking the same position Louis’ in. When Eleanor stretches her legs out and anchors her hands down to her sides, her pinky lands on his hand. It surprises Louis, but he doesn’t move his hand away. Eleanor also keeps her pinky there and-and Louis finds himself relieved that she’s still touching him. Even if it’s in such a small way, it makes Louis feel warm and fuzzy.

“I always schedule a few days, up to a week off between trips,” she begins to explain, “I always go back home in New York. This gives me time to rest up, do laundry, and pack for next trip. I also write and edit my blog post a few times and go through all the pictures I took to go on my blog before I post it on the day I leave for my next trip.”

Louis blinks, “Wow, you’re like super organized.” It makes Eleanor laugh, which is beautiful to witness.

“I have to be,” she shrugs simply. Eleanor nudges her shoulder into his, “Hey, how’s your foot doing? It looks a lot better today.”

“Feels better, too,” Louis comments, “I don’t think I’ll need to take any more pain medicine.”

“I would still take one tonight before you go to bed,” Eleanor comments, “Oh, so what do you want to do tomorrow?”

“Well, I thought about how Harry and Liam went whale watching. They still were talking about it today and how cool it was,” Louis shrugs, “I’ve never seen a whale in person before, although I bet you have, yeah?”

Eleanor nods, “Off the coast in Australia last year. It was fucking amazing,” she comments, and then adds on, “Cool, so I’ll call Santiago tonight and set that all up for us tomorrow.” Louis just smiles at her.

“I just—I can’t thank you enough for doing all this, and for me basically hijacking your vacation.”

Eleanor sighs, “Louis, you have to stop thanking me. Honestly it’s not that big of a deal.”

“It is though,” Louis insists, “I feel like I’m mooching off you for a free vacation.”

“You’re not though. I was the one that came up with this arrangement,” Eleanor reminds him.

“But still,” Louis stubbornly says, “This trip so far has just been amazing. And I can’t ever repay you or thank you enough for giving me this.”

Suddenly, Eleanor’s hand is on his cheek with a gentle, yet firm grip on his jaw that makes him look at her. Eleanor just looks at him for a moment, with a stoic gaze that has Louis feeling weak. They’re close, impossibly close like and Louis gaze drops to her lips because they’re right there. He’s been thinking about kissing her for days now, probably since the first time they ever interacted. She’s so beautiful, even without a trace of makeup on. Her cheeks are littered with sun freckles. Louis’ never noticed them before because they haven’t been this close. But now that he’s seen them, Louis wants to kiss each and every one of them. Eleanor’s just beautiful, in every sense of the word, and he can’t help but feel in awe of her.

“Louis,” Eleanor says lowly, “Please believe me when I say that having you here with me is the farthest thing from a burden to me. Like—why is it so hard for you to think that you’re actually a good man, one that I like a lot and I love spending my days with you?”

And well, Louis can’t say anything—literally can’t speak because his breath is caught in his throat. Eleanor just casually admitted that she liked him. And sure, she could just be saying this as a friend but. But Eleanor’s eyes have grown darker and her gaze drops down to his lips. Maybe it’s his imagination, but the space between them seemingly becomes less and less. Eleanor moves in closer, her eyes locked on his lips. And Louis’ doing the same thing, feeling the pull towards her and finally, finally feeling himself letting go of any hesitations he had before.

Then his phone rings.

They both stop.

The moments gone.

Louis physically deflates, dropping his head to Eleanor’s shoulder with a deep exhale. He ignores his phone for another rings.

Eleanor finally says, “You should probably answer that.”

“El,” Louis exhales, and makes himself look up at her. She’s got a small, sad smirk on her lips, but her eyes are bright.

“We’ll get another moment,” Eleanor promises just as his phone rings again. She nudges her shoulder, making Louis lift his head off of her, “Now go answer that.”

Sighing, and feeling a little annoyed, Louis pulls his phone out of his pocket. He accept the call without looking at the screen.

“Hello?”

A long pause comes after his greeting.

And then—

“Louis?”

His eyes widening, and instantly he feels sick, “P-Perrie?”

At that, Louis sees from the corner of his eye Eleanor’s head turning to face him.

No, fuck no. This can’t be happening.

“Louis, please don’t hang up,” Perrie begs. Louis closes his eyes and sighs tiredly. She still has some hold over him, after the shit and pain Perrie’s put him through, it’s like Louis can’t fully escape her. And he hates that feeling.

“Per,” he pleas softly, his voice thick. Fuck, tears are welling up in his eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she says again quickly, “Lou, I’m so fucking sorry. I love you, please Louis. We can work this all out I know we can.”

It’s too much. Louis feels sick to his stomach from her voice. But he can’t seem to do anything. He can’t speak to Perrie, physically cannot bring himself to say anything to her. Yet at the same time, he can’t bring himself to hang up on her. That’s too cruel somehow to do that to her.

“Please,” Perrie begs softly, “I know you love me still, you promised me you’d always lo—”

Suddenly, Eleanor’s right up against Louis, her lips just next to his. She starts giggling loudly into his phone, a laugh that sounds flirty and breathy. Louis’ stunned, confused and shoots Eleanor a look that registers how he feels. What the Hell is she doing?

Perrie, of course, hears this, “Louis, who is that?”

“Louis,” Eleanor giggles loudly, “Stop it—that tickles!” He’s not touching her at all, is the thing. Yet she’s acting like some teenage girl trying to flirt with a boy for the first time.

Louis exhales a shocked, yet very amused laugh.

Perrie, however, is not amused by this at all.

“Who the fuck is that, Louis?!” she barks at him, “Where the Hell are you?”

But Eleanor plays on, barely holding back a laugh of her own, “Hmm, yeah Lou. Love when you touch me there.”

At that, the spell Perrie seemed to have Louis under was broken. Perrie’s shouting his ear off in his phone, screaming bloody murder and demanding answers. But Louis smiles as he pulls his phone away and ends the call abruptly. Eleanor’s full on laughing by now, keeled over onto Louis’ side as he makes the smart decision to turn off his phone for the rest of the day.

“What the fuck was that?” Louis sputters, unable to hold back his laugh. Eleanor draws back, and Louis sees tears in her eyes as she wipes off her cheeks.

Eleanor lets out a long breath, and lets at him, “Okay, I’m sorry. I know I crossed the line and like. I shouldn’t have involved myself in your shit with your ex but,” she pauses to compose herself, suddenly becoming very serious again. It makes Louis’ heart stop as he waits for her to speak up.

“You were drowning, Lou,” she says simply, “You looked mortified on the phone with her, and I. I could just sit here and watch you struggle like that, not after all she put you through. You’re so fucking strong Louis, and she makes you weak in a terrible way. So I stepped in to help you out.”

Louis scoffs, his head shaking, “Perrie’s gonna be fucking pissed.”

“Serves her right after everything she put you through,” Eleanor shrugs, “Let her have a taste of her own medicine.”

Eleanor drops her head to Louis’ shoulder, making him loose his breath for a few seconds. But then, he feels comfortable enough to wrap one arm around her. It’s very romantic, Louis thinks dumbly, with the two of them relatively secluded on a hot beach in Mexico looking out on the ocean. He braves the chance and quickly kisses the top of Eleanor’s head.

“Thank you,” he says genuinely.

Eleanor replies easily, “Anything for you, Lou.”

The terrifying thing is, Louis knows she means it.


	3. Chapter Three

Louis doesn’t turn on his phone until the next morning.

                He promptly ignores the twelve missed calls from Perrie and the twenty-some text messages from her. Louis sends Niall a quick message letting him know how things were going. He then calls his mom and tells her about the whole Perrie debacle.

                “Ah,” Jay sighs, “That must be why she was calling all of us last night.”

                Louis winces, “All of you guys?”

                “Me, Lottie and Fizz, mainly,” she explains. Louis’ eyes widened.

                “Perrie called Lottie? Really?”

                Jay confirms, “Yeah, the nerve of her honestly calling any of us. She demanded to know where you were, and Lottie told her to quote, ‘fuck off.’ I pretty much said the same thing, only with more polite words.”

                “God,” Louis groans, “I’m sorry.”

                “Don’t be, love,” Jay insists kindly, “It’s not your fault any of this stuff happened. And we’re your family, we’ll protect and defend you always. Perrie will grow tired of all this eventually when she realizes that you two are completely done and then she’ll be out of all of our lives and we can all move on.

                She pauses before asking, “That is—you’re not thinking about getting back together with her, right Louis?”

                “God no,” Louis says quickly.

                “Because, like we would totally support you and all. It’s just—”

                Louis tells her again, “Mom, I could never get back with Perrie, not after everything she’s done to me.”

                “But you still love her, don’t you?” Jay asks, but it doesn’t sound much like a question. Louis remains silent for moment before Jay speaks up again, “Sweetie, I know you and I know you’re very loyal. You’d do anything for the people you love, and I fear that people will take advantage of that, especially Perrie.”

                Jay is seldom wrong about anything, but she’s especially right about this. Louis thinks back on his brief, yet very manipulative conversation he had with Perrie yesterday.

His mother goes on, “It’s hard to let go of people when they hurt you, Lou. Because you don’t want to let go of the people in your life. I just—it hasn’t even been two weeks yet, Lou. Two weeks isn’t going to replace the years you had with Perrie. I don’t want you to get hurt again. That night, seeing you like that at the reception and afterwards was the worst thing I’ve ever seen happen to you.”

“Mom,” Louis pleas, desperate not to talk about that night again.

Jay sighs, “Okay, okay. I’m sorry, Boo.”

“God,” Louis snickers, “You need to stop calling me that.”

“You’ll always be my baby,” she confesses earnestly, “So tell me more about your trip!”

And Louis does just that, going from the very beginning when he met Eleanor on the plane. Jay too is kinda in awe of the arrangement Eleanor came up for Louis, and also seems to think it’s all too good to be real. But then Louis tells her about how much fun ziplining was and snorkeling and his trip to the spa. Louis can hear his own excitement and feels positively giddy as he relays every detail he can recall.

                “I can’t believe you didn’t call me to tell me about your foot,” Jay scolds softly.

                Louis snickers, “Sorry, mom. It just happened so fast, and it’s not a major injury. And Eleanor was able to help me out, so there was no reason to make you worry over nothing.”

                “I’m only teasing, love,” she promises him, and then adds, “I’m glad you’re having so much fun on your trip. You certainly deserve it, Lou.” Louis grins sheepishly.

                “Honestly, without meeting Eleanor, I probably would’ve spent the whole trip bunkered up in my room feeling sorry for myself,” he admits, but then adds, “It’s beautiful out here, mom. There’s so many distractions and it’s so far away from everything—it’s perfect.”

                Jay pauses for a moment before speaking up, her voice sounding cautious, “Do you think Eleanor might like more than just an acquaintance, or maybe—even more than just a friend?”

                “I think so,” Louis says lowly, almost nervous.

                “I take it you quite like Eleanor as well, right?” Jay concludes.

                Louis doesn’t bother denying his feelings, but rather asks, “Is it too soon?”

                “Well,” Jay begins, “It might be too soon for a serious relationship. But no Louis. Eleanor sounds like a great woman! You should just let things happen and see where it leads. If nothing romantic happens, at the very least Eleanor seems like a good person to become friends with.”

                That’s just the thing, Louis’ not sure if he’d be okay with just being Eleanor’s friends.

                But Louis doesn’t tell his mom any of this.

~~~

                Hours later, Louis finally understands Harry’s excitement towards whale watching.

                Majestic is the only word Louis can think of when he first saw a whale in person. The tour guide points out the large mammal peeking out of the ocean, only a hundred feet or so away from the boat. All the other tourist gasped in awe and gleefully pointed at the creature. But Louis—Louis stood speechless, unable to capture the moment on camera because he couldn’t move.

The whale was massive, at least twice the size of the ferry boat they were on. The silvery grey skin of the whale reflected a glaring light off its skin. It moved quickly up the water, being only visible above the surface for a mere moment before ducking just under the water and swimming away.

Louis was in awe.

The tour lasted about two hours, and the whole time, Louis was steadfast against the side of the boat. He had abandoned Eleanor at some point and felt terribly guilty about that. But he just needed to be up close to the action, ready to take a picture of the magnificent creature. The whole thing is just thrilling, and utterly surreal. The choppy waters hitting against the boat, making is rock side to side. The inner case Louis feels when looking for a whale to pop up and the rush to get the take the picture just at the right second.

There are a total of eight sightings, and somehow, each time after the first doesn’t get less exciting for Louis.

Satisfied with his pictures, Louis decides to back away from the side of the boat and let other people get the prime spot. They still have about twenty minutes left of the tour, including the ten-minute ride back to shore. So Louis expect everything to be winding down, and he goes out in search of Eleanor. He guesses she’s on the other side of the boat, smack in front of all the action spotting for whales.

But she’s not.

Louis finally sees Eleanor near the front of the boat, sitting alone with her back against the cabin set in the middle of the boat. Her hands weakly stretched against the side of the cabin, and she looks dazed and pale with a tinge of green in her cheeks.

“El?” Louis asks softly as he approaches her. Eleanor mutely nods, her eyes rapidly blinking as she lulls to her side, somewhat facing him. Louis sits beside her and instantly, she takes hold of Louis’ stretched out arm, “Hey—are you okay?”

Eleanor shakes her head, “N-No, not really.”

The captain spokes over the intercom then, informing everyone to take their seats quickly so they can leave soon.

“Fuck,” Eleanor groans.

Louis asks, “What’s wrong?” Eleanor gulps thickly.

“I—God, I thought I would be okay, ya know? I-I haven’t gotten sea sick in ages,” she confesses tightly, “It’s just—the waters are…a bit rough today and I-I—”

“Shh, El,” Louis says calmly. He puts his arm around her and pulls her into his side, “You’re gonna be okay.”

Eleanor shakes her head, “L-Lou, I can’t—I don’t wanna get sick—”

“You won’t,” Louis assures her. The horn goes off, making Louis jump a little because it was right in his ear. The engine roars back on, and the boat slowly turns around to head back.

Eleanor closes her eyes tightly, “Oh God.”

“Here, gimme your wrist,” he asks. Eleanor quickly does as she’s told and Louis quickly finds the two vertical lines in the center of her wrist. He squeezes his index finger into it, hard and nods to himself at his work.

“Okay,” he instructs, “Now I need you to look up, El—”

“I can’t,” Eleanor insists, her eyes clinched tight and her face wrinkled up in sickness. God, Louis hates seeing her like this.

“El, I promise you everything will be fine, okay?” He says, when that gets no response, Louis sighs and tells her, “Looking at the horizon is going to play a trick on your brain. It will seem as though that we’re not moving at all, and it’ll help with your motion sickness.”

The boat picks up speeding, bouncing Eleanor forward and more into Louis’ side. She groans.

“Promise?” she begs.

Louis smiles slightly, his finger digging into her pressure point harder, “Promise.”

Slowly, Eleanor lifts her head and looks up at him. She’s got that hazy, cloudy look in her eyes that Louis is all too familiar with. He helps move her neck forward and Eleanor squints her eyes.

“Focus on the horizon, nothing else okay?” he tells her, and Eleanor nods mutely. After a moment or so, Louis asks, “Are you feeling any better?”

Eleanor waits a beat before responding, “A-A little.”

“Just breathe, El,” he says, “Look at the horizon.”

The boat sways to the side, a little too hard—hard enough for Louis to feel uncomfortable for a split second. But Eleanor flinches, and Louis can tell how hard she’s trying to focus her gaze.

“T-Talk to me,” she finally says, her voice barely speaking above the hiss waters against the boat.

Louis asks, “What about?”

“Anything,” she replies quickly. She gulps thickly, and Louis holds his breath just in case something happens. Thankfully, Eleanor evens out her breathing and doesn’t show any signs of her spewing her guts out on the deck any time soon. Eleanor asks, “How do you know so much on how to cure motion sickness? Do you have it?”

Louis shakes his head, “My little sister Phoebe does, can’t go longer than a half hour in a car ride without becoming queasy.”

“Don’t say that word,” Eleanor mutters. Louis grimaces.

“Sorry,” he says, and decide it’s best to continue on, “Anyway, I hate seeing my family in any sort of agony, especially my sisters. I wanted Phoebe to live a normal life without letting her— _aliment_ weighing her down. So I looked up different remedies on it. I learned about the horizon hack. But the thing in the wrist that I’m pressing into is called your sixth pressure point, or something like that. It’s based on Chinese Traditional Medicine, and there are these bands that you can get that have a ball pressed into the pressure point. Do you have them?”

“No,” Eleanor confesses, and she’s stiff as a board beside Louis, as if she’s afraid to move an inch, “I just usually took medicine in the past. But-like I said I haven’t felt this in years. It’s just—the waters are really rough today and it just got to me.”

Louis smirks kindly at her, “We’re almost back on shore, El. Just hang tight.”

In a few minutes, a beacon in the distance comes in the form of a dingy wood dock. Louis and Eleanor exhale in relief as the boat approaches, slowly down to a stop right up beside the dock. Passengers get off the boat in quick throngs, but Louis and Eleanor stay behind. Eleanor still looks a little pale and is trying to catch her breath. Louis knows from his past experiences with Phoebe that the affects of motion sickness tends to linger for a while even after you’ve stopped moving.

Once the boat has cleared out, Louis gently pushes her, “El? We’re back. We need to get off now.” But Eleanor shakes her head.

“I-If I stand up, I’ll—”

“You’ll be fine,” Louis assures her, squeezing her side, “I got you.”

After a second, Eleanor nods feebly. Louis takes Eleanor’s purse and helps her up, and she wobbles into his side. Eleanor’s hand clings onto his as he pulls her up from the boat and onto the deck. Her breathing becomes hard again, and thankfully there’s a bench on the dock nearby. Louis leads the way and sets Eleanor down on the bench.

“Need me to get you anything El?” Louis asks, and Eleanor shakes her head as a reply. Still, Louis offers, “I can see if there’s any ginger ale around here.”

Again, Eleanor shakes her head and tightens her grip on Louis’ hands, “Just—gimme a second. Sit down and-and tell me more about your sisters.”

And that is something Louis is more than happy to do.

“Okay,” he exhales and sits down beside Eleanor. He goes on, “Well, first there’s Lottie, short for Charlotte. She’s pretty much exactly me as a woman,” he chuckles, and explains, “She’s feisty like me, and outgoing too—but a little bit more carefree I guess? Anyway, she’s currently finishing up beauty school. She wants to be a makeup artist. She lives in LA with her boyfriend, Tom. He’s nice and—well, a while back, he asked me my blessing to ask Lottie to marry him.”

Eleanor gasps softly, “Really?” Louis grins as he nods.

“He told me it wouldn’t be any time soon, as they’re so young. But like, my stepdad isn’t really that close with Lottie anymore—there’s a lot of unresolved shit after my mom and Mark got divorced. So like, I’m her ‘male figure’ in her life. I don’t get it, Tommy didn’t have to ask for my approval—that’s all on Lottie to accept him or not.”

But Eleanor disagrees, “No, Lou. I think that’s so sweet. It’s a gesture of respect for your family.”

Louis agrees to disagree on that.

“Anyway, Lottie and Tom are a good pair,” he comments idly, hate the ever so haunting memories of his own failed engagement. Louis shakes his head at himself, and goes on, “Then there’s Felicite, we call her Flizz. Flizz is very shy and introverted but has such a caring soul. She’s going to graduate next year from high school. She’s artistic, her paintings and drawings are just beautiful! She’s so talented, she’s practically a shoe-in to get accepted to several art programs all over the country. But she has her heart set on one in New York, which is perfect because I would be close by if she ever needed me, but far away from New York so she would feel independent, ya know?”

When Louis faces Eleanor, she’s got a fond smile on her lips as she nods, her gaze soft. He feels a bit flushed and goes on.

“Daisy and Phoebe came next,” Louis scoffs, shakes his head, “They’re thirteen and so sweet and, like—almost oblivious to how fucked up the world is. They trust people so easily and give people the benefit of the doubt all the time. I wish sometimes I still had that blind faith in people and their general optimism in people and life. Both are really into fashion and beauty as well, and they’re Hell bent on being the next Mary Kate and Ashley.”

This comment garners a giggle from Eleanor. Louis smirks, knowing she must be feeling better.

“Then there’s Doris and Earnest. They’re both so spunky and curious about everything—it’s just amazing. They’re little rascals though, and so manipulative too. They got us all wrapped around their little fingers, but I don’t give a shit because they’re so cute and I love them. I love all my siblings and I would move mountains for them and I know they’d do the same for me in a heartbeat. I just feel so lucky to have them all.”

Louis stops then, settling for the seagulls and the boats roaring in the distance. Then Eleanor comments.

“Sounds like you have a great family, Lou,” she says softly. She squeezes Louis’ hand, “Thank you for telling me all about them. And for, you know, helping me out on the boat with everything. I feel so embarrassed.”

“Don’t be,” Louis says sincerely, “You got nothing to be ashamed of.”

Eleanor presses her lips together, as though she’s holding back from disagreeing. Instead she slowly moves in and plants a timid, soft kiss on Louis’ cheek. It’s comes out of nowhere, and it makes Louis’ heart flutter.

“I’m so glad I met you Louis,” she states earnestly.

Louis smiles sheepishly, “M-Me too, Els.”

They spend the rest of the afternoon watching the boats come and go from the dock, with Eleanor’s cheek on Louis’ shoulder and a terribly wonderful feeling of security and comfort Louis hasn’t felt in a long, long time.

~~~

                “Louis,” Eleanor chides over the thumping music and hordes of people standing all around them. She tugs on Louis’ hand, pulling him closer to her. Eleanor looks gorgeous under the bright blue lights surrounding them. Louis wants to tell her this, but the words are lost on his tongue. She assures him, “Lou, I promise I’m fine, okay? This is exactly what I need!”

                Liam has rung up Louis’ room shortly after him and Eleanor got back from whale watching. Harry, apparently, was dying to check out a local club he found online, and Liam extended that invitation to Louis and Eleanor. Eleanor agreed in a heartbeat, but Louis wasn’t as sure. She had been in such bad shape only hours before, though she had been insisting she’s fine all afternoon. Still, before Eleanor left to get ready to go out, Louis made her eat something small to settle her stomach. She rolled her eyes, but nevertheless ate the toast Louis ordered from room service for her, and some almonds as well.

                Still, Louis made Eleanor promise him she wouldn’t go too hard tonight on the alcohol. She agreed easily.

                The club Harry picked out looks practically the same as clubs in America. Louis looks around the crowded space for anything different and can’t find anything. The club itself looks the same, with an overall dark interior design scheme with a large bar along the right wall, small tables and booths along the sides and a large, sleek dancing floor. Multicolored lights bounce off of walls and people to the beat of electronic music. The people are the same here as they are in any other club Louis’ been in, all happy, super energic people letting loose and looking for a good night out. The music is the same for the most part, something loud with a hypnotic beat and easy for half-drunk people to dance to. The only difference is the lyrics are sung in Spanish, with some of the more popular America DJ music in the mix as well.

                The biggest difference though, is the fact that this club has Eleanor in it tonight.

                Louis isn’t surprised when he sees a lot of people watching Eleanor as she goes by. She’s gorgeous in a short red dress that clings to her hips. When Louis first saw her, just a half hour before when he picked her up from her room, literally all the hair in his lungs seized up. The first thing he noticed was the smoky eye makeup she had done. Eleanor hadn’t worn a drop of make since Louis’ met her (or at least to his basic understanding of makeup, she hadn’t. But then again, who knows for sure). Louis then realized that Eleanor had curl her hair in loose, large curls that framed her face beautifully. Louis had to resist the urge to touch them. Lastly, he saw the red, short dress that hugged her curves.

                Even now, after having spent the whole car ride to the club next to her, Louis can’t take his eyes off of Eleanor. He still hasn’t gotten used to how gorgeous she is.

                And now he has to share her with an entire club. Louis selfishly just wants to be alone with Eleanor, but he knows he has no right to do that.

                Harry and Liam have already nabbed a booth by the time Louis and Eleanor have gotten there. The two men look cozy, Louis thinks as he approaches the table. Harry’s leaning closer to Liam, and takes the cherry out of his cheery and plops it in his mouth. Louis snickers at Liam’s awed, slightly drunk expression.

                “Hey guys!” Eleanor greets the men happily, “What are we drinking?”

                Liam suggests tequila shots, which quickly become two and then three shots. Within an hour, Louis feels a lightness settling in, the taste of alcohol still heavy on his tongue and any cares he still had left on his vacation is now far, far away. He sways to the pulsing beat of the music and is content in his own little world.

                Eleanor is out on the dancefloor with Harry. The two of them have been there for a while now, and Louis sees a thin sheen on Eleanor’s face when the lights land on her. Her and Harry are dancing wildly, both laughing and smiling brightly. Louis can’t take his eyes off of Eleanor, just slowly sips on his authentic Mexican beer as he watches Eleanor flips her hair around while she jumps to the beat. Eleanor looks at him then, while she’s moving her hips teasingly slow and has hair stuck to her forehead. She grins cheekily at him and Louis feels his lip tug up in a smug grin.

                “Fuck,” Liam says beside Louis. He’s more worse off than Louis is by a long shot, as he’s had more to drink then Louis’ had. Liam shoves his face into Louis’, his words slurred, “H-Harry is fuckin’ p-perfect Looou! I looove him—I love him soo much!”

                Louis snickers, shaking his head as he throws his arm around Liam, “Then tell him that, Li!” he shouts over the music. But Liam shakes his head.

                “There’s no way H-Harry would ever l-love mee,” Louis hears a small whimper come from Liam, and all too quickly, Liam’s face is buried in Louis’ shoulder, “I’m not g-good enough for H, L-Loou.”

                Oh God, Liam’s a weepy drunk.

                Louis wouldn’t have pegged him to be that guy.

                Suddenly Harry’s there, standing before Louis with concerned eyes, yet a fond smile.

                “Well fuck, Li,” Harry says as he shakes his head at his friend. He looks apologetically to Louis, “Sorry man—Liam gets kinda emo when he drinks too much. He tends to go on about past mistakes and shit like that. What was it this time, hm? When he flunked out of trigonometry in high school?”

                Liam lets out a loud sob into Louis’ side when Harry grabs his shoulders.

                There’s no way in Hell Louis’ telling Harry the truth.

                “So that’s why he was rattling off numbers,” Louis lies easily, chuckling.

                Harry rolls his eyes as he pulls Liam off of Louis gently, “Come on Li—let’s get some water in ya.”

                “Pretty Harry,” Liam mumbles, his finger poking the dimple in Harry’s cheek, “My p-pretty, perfect Harry, p-perfect for me.” Liam breaks out into more fits of sobs.

                Louis smirks knowingly at the blush on Harry’s cheek.

                “Fuck off,” Harry tells Liam kindly before leaving.

                Eleanor comes up to the bar then, frowning at Louis slightly, “Everything ok with Liam? Harry left me so quickly I thought Liam was choking or something.”

                Louis snorts, “It’s nothing, just young love.” The corners of Eleanor lips draw upward.

                “I’m going to order another drink,” she states easily as she wipes her brow. She gives Louis a devilish smirk, “And then I’m going back on the dancefloor with you.”

                “Oh no,” Louis dismisses instantly, “There’s no way in Hell I’m dancing. You’d have to drag me out there.”

                Twenty minutes later, that’s just what Eleanor does. Louis finds himself feebly holding Eleanor’s hand as she leads the way through the crowd and finds an open spot for them. He tried telling her no, he really did. But Eleanor bargained hard, battered her eyes lashes and everything. The hard no on his tongue was swallowed back down his throat as soon as Eleanor took his hand.

                They stop near the center, just as the hyped-up pop song that was on ends. Louis swallows thickly as a new, slower song perfect to grind to begins. A danger smile spreads over Eleanor’s ruby red lips as the light change color around them, going from green to an allusive shade of purple. She’s right up on him then, slowly yet confidently pressing her chest against his. Louis bites his lip as Eleanor slides her knee in between his legs, just inches shy of his sex. Her face is dead serious as she links her arms around his neck and begins to sway into him, rolling her hips against him. Eleanor drops her head onto his collarbone. Louis feels each of her breath on his skin under his collar.

                “Touch me, Lou,” she whispers boldly into his ear after several minutes because Louis’ stunned still. He’s afraid to touch her, as if once his hands are on her body she’ll not be as into him as she is now. But Louis thoughtlessly does as he’s told, easily finding the curve of her hips and taking hold of her with both hands. The soft, pleased sigh that escapes Eleanor’s lips stirs up Louis’ gut.

                As the song goes on, Eleanor seems to grow more confident, rolling her hips harder into Louis’ thigh. Louis finds himself tightening his hands-on Eleanor’s body, and pulls her in closer. Sweat pools at the base of his neck, and he huffs against Eleanor’s ear. Louis tries to calm himself down, to not get too excited but it’s so hard not to when Eleanor’s just there, teasing him, tormenting him with her dance move, and she goes on as if she can’t see the affect she has on him.

                Suddenly Eleanor’s lips are mouthing at his collarbone. Louis can’t help but feel his eyes roll in the back of his head and low grunt betrays him. He feels Eleanor smirk against his skin and she is just terrible. Terrible, and awful and amazing. So, so incredibly amazing and Louis’ the luckiest guy in the club to have draped over his body for some reason.

                “Louis,” she murmurs hotly into his neck and-and Louis has no idea if it’s Eleanor talking or the booze. But he loves the way her voice sounds. He grips onto Eleanor’s hips harder and lavishes in the breathy pant Eleanor exhales into his skin.

                It all ends too quickly.

                “Can we leave please?”

                Louis and Eleanor break apart so quickly, it has Louis’ mind spinning and his body aching for Eleanor’s stifling heat. Harry’s standing beside them, with his arms folded nervously in his chest and Louis thinks he sees the man’s jade eyes rimmed in red.

                “I don’t feel good,” Harry says after a moment of silence.

                Eleanor takes one look at him and nods, “Sure, Harry.”

                Harry mutely turns away and goes towards the front of the club. Louis looks to Eleanor.

                He asks, “What do you think is up with that?”

                “I dunno,” Eleanor sighs, “But it must be bad. We better get going.”

                Louis bites his lip, stays back to watch Eleanor for a few steps before following her out of the club. The ride back to the resort is uncomfortable to say the least. Harry broodily stares out the window the whole time, and Liam sobs quietly on Eleanor’s shoulder. Both Louis and Eleanor are sandwiched in the middle of the seats, painfully in the middle of whatever tension is going on between Harry and Liam.

                “Sorry about tonight,” Eleanor says once they’ve put Harry and Liam in their hotel room for the night. Louis snickers.

                “What? This wasn’t all part of your plan for the evening?” he muses once he reaches his room. When he turns around, he finds Eleanor staring at him mutely.

                “No actually,” she said, her voice on edge slightly. Louis waits as Eleanor takes a step towards him, her fingers lightly with the sleeve of his shirt, “I was really hoping this night would be filled with us dancing more than we did. I love dancing, just so you know. And I was also hoping for a kiss too, at some point, though the whole Harry and Liam disaster seems to have out a kibosh on that.”

                To say Louis’ shocked is a total understatement.

                “El—”

                Eleanor goes on, “Look Louis, I feel like I’ve made myself pretty clear over the past week. I like you, a lot—more than just professional terms. But I understand that you’ve been through a lot of shit lately. But I like you Louis, and think you like me too. And maybe you feel that this is all rushed and too crazy, and perhaps you’re right to think that.

                “But there’s a reason why we met, Lou. I think, at the very least, I’ve come into your life to get you to experience some fun and happiness. That doesn’t have to be limited to just daily adventures and discovering everything about Los Cabos, Lou. I’m talking about other stuff too.”

                Louis swallows thickly, his vision gone a bit hazy, “Other things?” Eleanor smirks.

                “I won’t elaborate,” she says lowly, “I’ll just let your imagination run wild on that one.”

                Eleanor moves up and kisses Louis’ cheek, sweet and short. Louis barely feels her lips, his frazzled mind still trying to make sense of this all.

                “Night Lou,” she says, and then asks, “Just figure out what you want and just let me know, okay? I’ll be fine either way.”

                With that, she’s gone.

                Louis stands beside in front of his door until he sees Eleanor go into his room. Some part of him wants to follow her, perhaps most of him wants to follow her and kiss her back. But he stays put, hopelessly unsure what to so. Eventually he settles for going into his hotel room, alone yet again. He gets undressed in a daze, brushes his teeth as he numbly looks at his reflection in the mirror.

                It takes him a good hour before he’s able to fall asleep. Since getting to Los Cabos, the lonely nights have been the worst. He’s had to physically leave his phone in the en-suite because the temptation to read Perries texts and reach out to her is strongest at night. But it’s funny, tonight Perrie is the farthest thing from his mind. What’s keeping him up is thoughts about Eleanor, going over all the memories and moments they’ve had over the last week.

At first, he denies the exchange in the hallway actually happened, then denies the idea that Eleanor has feelings for him. He then takes Eleanor’s advice and lets his mind go wild about the quote, “other stuff” she had reference, so much so that Louis has to stop after a while when he feels his dick perk up a bit. He sighs frustratedly after a few moments and brings the covers to his chin and falls asleep with a slight headache.

                Louis awakes with a jolt at four-thirty with a thought clear as day:

                Eleanor does like him, she said so herself. She actually likes Louis a lot.

                And she’s just down the hall.

                How the Hell can he just stay in bed when Eleanor’s just down the hall?

                When trying fruitlessly for an hour to go back to sleep, Louis showers and gets ready for the day as best as he can without fully knowing what Eleanor has planned for today. Louis’ dying to go to her room, but it’s still so fucking early. He opts to pass time by sitting on the deck attached to his suite and listen to the ocean roll to shore while he goes through his phone.

                He deletes the fourteen text messages Perrie has sent him yesterday, each one becoming more hostile the one before. But the texts don’t bother him, because he doesn’t have the capacity to focus on anything other then Eleanor, only Eleanor.

                When it reaches seven o’clock, Louis can’t wait a second longer.

                By seven-o-two, Louis’ knocking on Eleanor’s door.

                It takes a few seconds before the door opens. Louis exhales a breath he’s been holding in all night. Eleanor squints her eyes at him, frowning in confusion and its utterly clear Louis has just woken her up on accident. But then she blinks twice and smiles up at Louis and just looks so adorable with her lazy grin and her messy bun and an oversized old t-shirt for her pajamas.  

                “Hey, Lou,” she rasps, her voice thick with slumber.

                And.

And Louis can’t help himself.

“I like you too,” he blurts out. He closes his eyes and then sighs at himself, scolding, “Fuck, sorry—I mean, good morning, El.”

When he opens his eyes, Eleanor’s softly looking at him.

“Morning, Lou,” she mumbles and—and Louis can’t stop the dopy smile that overcomes him.

“I like you,” he tells her again, his chest soaring within his ribcage, “I like you a lot, El.”

A lovely, wide smile that matches Louis’ stretches over Eleanor’s lips.

“I knew it,” she says fondly, “I knew you like me too.”

Louis scoffs at that, a relaxed smile spreading over his lips to reflect how he was feeling now.

“How could I not like you?” he asks, “You’re like, fucking amazing.”

Eleanor smiles bashfully at that.

“C’mon in,” she offers, stepping aside. Louis tries his best not to frown.

It’s not that he’s disappointed per say, but he wasn’t expecting that kind of reaction. Louis would admit, he’s a helpless romantic. This has caused him more then harm then good lately, but he still values the idea of love. He loves the feeling of liking someone, the pulsing thrill of being around a woman he likes and the chase to learn every tiny detail about her. He likes the idea of perusing a woman, getting her small tokens of appreciation just to see her smile and taking her out to dinners. Louis is always an old fashion gent, pulling chairs out for women he dates and holding the door for her, and only splitting the bill if she insists. He loves the feeling of the push and pull between him and another woman, and he’s never experienced such a strong, dynamic sensation with any woman so quickly until he met Eleanor.

Since four-thirty in the morning, Louis has been expecting to kiss Eleanor once he told her he liked her. He’s thought about kissing her for days and was hoping to finally feel what her lips felt like today.

But it looks like it won’t happen, at least not any time.

Eleanor orders breakfast on the phone while Louis awkwardly sits on her bed. She smiles at Louis briefly before rummaging through one of her suitcases lined up against the wall. Louis watches the scene and thinks about how weird it is that Eleanor’s clothes are still in her suitcase. There’s plenty of drawers and closet space for her to hang up her clothes. Louis did that the day after he landed in Los Cabos, and it’s been a week already. It just seems odd Eleanor hasn’t done this.

Eleanor changes in the bathroom while Louis sits on edge, his finger nails digging into his knee caps, fighting to urge to stay put.

~~~ 

                Another beach.

                Eleanor’s taken him to another beach.

                It’s a pretty secluded beach, with bright turquoise waters and white sandy shorelines. They just stroll along the beach for a while, barely saying anything. Louis ignores the weird tension between them by taking pictures of the scenery. Eventually, Eleanor goes ahead of him and Louis takes of pic of her walking away in a bikini. She’s got a white two piece on today, with weird straps on the bottom half that go higher up on her hips. A black pair of expensive sunglasses, an airy and flowy white cover-up and a black New York Yankee baseball cap completes her look.

                There’s a lot of rock formations in the distance. A seemingly impossible tall archway ends just shy of the ocean, and another large formation coming out of the ocean just feet away. The jagged edges and massive height of the formation are a dominant and imposing force of nature, but they’re also truly stunning. Louis takes several pictures of them, some at a crouching level to show the true height of them.

                It takes some convincing from Eleanor for Louis to leave behind his shirt and shoes on the shore, with Eleanor doing the same to her sandals, sunglasses, snapback and coverup. She tells him to put his camera in his waterproof case before she walks into the ocean. Louis curses and tries to work as fast as he can to catch up to her. He hangs his camera around his neck and trots out into the ocean until the waters reach past his waist. Louis swims in the same direction Eleanor’s heading towards, straight to the arch.

                Eleanor is ringing her hair out when Louis gets to the shore from the brief swim. Louis suggests she stand under the arch and she does, being the ever perfect model for Louis.

                After a couple of dozen or so pictures, Eleanor tilts her head and looks at Louis with a kind gaze.

                “Come here, Lou,” she demands, and Louis’ up on his feet, following after her. Eleanor goes under the arch, her hand skimming over the rough rocky walls of the arch. Louis looks around at the secluded area, the spot being shaded and just out of view from the world. Eleanor looks over her shoulder and grins.

                “This is the southern most tip of the California peninsula. This arch is called the Arch of Cabos San Lucas. During the rainy seasons, this beach part we’re on now goes completely under the water. I think this would be quite a lovely spot to go kayaking under, don’t you?”

                Louis nods dumbly at the question. He can’t stop looking at Eleanor’s lips.

                Eleanor goes on, her eyes looking out into the ocean, “I read somewhere this is a hot spot for sea lions, but I don’t see any today. Such a shame, they’re so fucking cute.”

                “They are,” Louis agrees, breathlessly. He exhales and pleads, “El—”

                “This beach Lou,” she says and finally looks back over to him, grinning in so much delight, “This beach is also known as Lover’s Beach, Lou.”

                And, oh.

                “Really?” he says, inching his way closer to her. Eleanor nods once, a proud smile laced on her lips. Her hands go for Louis’ waist, and Louis lets out a quick, sharp breath they’re on his skin.

                “It would be really fantastic if you were to kiss me right now,” she says flatly, and Louis’ noticed how dark her eyes have become.

                Louis bites his lips for a split second, before letting go of any hesitation.

                He goes in for a kiss a little bit too eagerly but how could he not? Eleanor’s just right there, they’re both here under a cave on some beach made for lovers. It all feels like a dream, especially Eleanor’s plush lips against his. They taste like salt water, and she smells like sunblock lotion and the rocks dig into the back of Louis’ knuckles from where he’s holding her body around the small of her back. But Louis doesn’t give a damn about that, not when he’s kissing Eleanor.

A pleasant sigh escapes Eleanor before she draws back. Louis lets out a pathetic whimper and tries to follow her lips, but it just makes Eleanor giggle. Louis opens his eyes and sees Eleanor grinning widely. Her thumb strokes his cheek and she explains.

“Couldn’t have planned it any better,” she says.

Louis frowns, “Wait—you? You planned this all out?”

“Of course, I did,” she says easily with a shrug, “I knew you wanted to kiss me this morning, and I could tell you were a bit heartbroken when it didn’t happen.”

“I wouldn’t say _heartbroken_ ,” Louis begrudgingly retorts.

Eleanor scoffs before going in for another kiss, this one teasingly slow and a bit firmer then before.

“How’d you plan this all out, Els?” Louis asks a bit breathlessly when the part a few minutes later. His hands are dead set on Eleanor’s hips because there’s no way in Hell Louis’ ever going to let go of her now, “Why here?”

Eleanor cards her fingers through his hair and is peculiarly quiet. She’s quiet when she finally answers him.

“When I was doing research for this trip a few weeks ago,” she begins, “I found this archway, and read so many stories of happy couples praising this spot for being so romantic. I dunno, I just wanted more then anything to find a man to kiss under here, but it had to be a man that means something to me, you know? So that the kiss would mean something to me.”

A bemused smile traces over Louis’ lips, “And you picked me?”

“More like fate did, I think,” she explains with a grin, “I thought I’d lost any chance I had with you when we got off the plane separately. But when I saw you in the lobby at the resort, I knew fate was giving me a second chance, and that you weren’t just some stranger on a plane.”

Louis swallows thickly then, his eyes darting over Eleanor’s stoic gaze.

“What am I, then?”

Eleanor cups his cheek and mumbles quickly as she brings him back to her lips.

“So, so much more, Lou.”

The morning is spent with Louis chasing Eleanor in the ocean, Eleanor splashing Louis in the face as she swims quickly away. When Louis finally catches (as he always seems to do time and time again) Eleanor holds on to him, her legs wrapped around his waist under the water. Louis holds her up as they kiss each other desperately.

It’s perfect, utterly perfect.

And Louis’ sure he couldn’t have written a day better then this himself.

When they get back to the beach at the resort later, they’re hands brush together slightly. Louis wants to reach other and grab her hand, but despite spending the day kissing and touching each other all day, hand holding still feels too much.

Liam and Harry are on the beach, sitting at a table on opposite sides and both looking miserable. It’s a terrible stark contrast from last night, and glaring problem that Louis wants to fix.

“Clearly they didn’t fix whatever shit went on between them,” Eleanor comments.

Louis nods, “You whisk Harry away and I’ll talk to Liam?” Eleanor nods at the plan and they separate, much to Louis’ dismay.

“It’s fine,” Liam insists weakly when Louis asks what’s up. Louis sits back in his seat and sighs, looking off to where Eleanor’s with Harry off to the side under a palm tree. He seems as brooding and jaded as Liam seems.

Louis shakes his head, “What the Hell happened last night? When EL and I got to the club you two were all cuddled up in the booth—”

“We weren’t—”

“You were,” Louis laments, and goes on, “And by the end of the night, Harry was pissed, and you were weepy.”

Liam swallowed thickly and looks off to the side.

“Harry and I kissed,” he mumbles, his arms wrapped around himself.

Louis blinks, “So? What’s wrong with that?”

“What’s wrong?!” Liam scoffs, “Fuck, everything Lou! I mean, I know—I’ve always liked Harry but—our friendship is so important to me. I never made a move on him because I didn’t want this to happen—I didn’t want our relationship to change the way it has. There was always a chance that if I made a move I would lose Harry and now I’ve gone and fucked everything up and he hates me.”

“But,” Louis sighs, “Okay, gimme more details. Who kissed who?”

Liam ponders on that, “I did. Fuck Lou—I was so drunk.”

“And how’d you react to the kiss?” Louis asks. Liam shrugs.

“At first, I just kept kissing Harry because he was kissing me back and it felt good—really good,” he sighs worriedly, “But then, I dunno—I realized what I was doing, and shoved Harry off me. I told him it was a mistake, that I didn’t mean to do that. And that’s when Harry stormed off.”

Louis scoffs and shakes his head.

Liam frowns at him, “It’s not funny!”

“Oh it is, Liam,” he reasons, “God, you’re so dense—both of you!”

“Hey!” Liam protests.

Louis looks at him pointedly and realizes now he has to push fate along a little bit.

“Harry’s in love with you, man.”

Liam’s eyes widen at the statement for a small second before he shakes his head, “No he’s not.”

“He is,” Louis insists, “Harry told me himself a few days ago right here on this beach. You were playing volleyball and he compared you to some male romantic lead in a classic novel. I can’t remember what book it was, but—”

Liam cuts him off, “Wait, Harry really said that?”

“Yes!” Louis practically shouts.

“But—no. Why didn’t he say anything before?”

Louis waves him off, “Because Harry’s old school. He wants to be pursued by you, Liam! He was waiting until you realized he was the one for you. Harry told me he didn’t care how long it took, that he’d wait for you because you are his soulmate, Liam.”

It’s beautiful, Louis thinks, as a slow excited smile stretches over Liam’s lips.

Love is a beautiful thing.

“He really said that?” he gawks, “Really?”

“I wouldn’t lie to you about this, Li—mainly because it shouldn’t really be any of my damn business,” Louis shrugs, “But it’s clear that you two need a little help and—”

The chair Liam was sitting in falls back when he stands up quickly.

Louis beams with pride when Liam all but runs over to Harry, breaking the other man off from his conversation with Eleanor. Harry frowns at him, but Liam doesn’t explain himself with words. He just sandwiches Harry’s face in between his hands and kisses him hard. Eleanor takes a few steps back, and Louis sees her shake her head in disbelief. It takes a second before Harry’s clawing at Liam’s shirt and kissing him back with quick vigor.

“Well,” Eleanor says when she and Louis are in the elevator a few moments later, “That went better then I expected. I was just hoping to get them to talk to each other.”

Louis chuckles, “Both of them told me they loved each other. I just had to give Liam a little push.”

“Why didn’t they tell me this?!” Eleanor asks, “I mean, I knew they were, but still!”

Louis shrugs, himself feeling a little bit inadequate to talk about love right with all the shit he’s been through. But he keeps that to himself, not wanting to ruin his time with Eleanor.

When they walk out onto their floor, Louis quickly reaches to his side for Eleanor’s hand before his thoughts could stop him.

“You wanna,” he begins, his eyes darting down to Eleanor’s lips, “You want to come in my room?”

Eleanor pauses before nodding surely.

Louis feels Eleanor’s eyes on him when he puts his hotel key into the door. Her hand is just lightly on his back when he opens the door and softly guides him in first. Eleanor’s the one that closes the door behind them and—and it just shouldn’t be this weird. Eleanor’s been in here before and has seen him shirtless several times. But now, now it feels also so different then before. Now Louis has kissed her and held her close all day.

It is different now, the line’s been crossed.

Yet Louis finds himself wanting to cross more lines with Eleanor.

“I have champagne,” he finds himself saying, suddenly remember that from his first night at the resort, “I mean, it’s kinda early still but—”

“I love champagne,” she agrees easily.

Louis hears Eleanor shuffle around behind him as Louis uncorks the bottle with minimal fizz. He’s dying to see what she’s up to, and it already a little hard with interest and anticipation. He’s holding two flutes when he turns around. Eleanor’s lounging on the canopy bed and unhooked the sheer sheets around the posts of the bed, concealing her slightly. Louis smirks and pulls the sheet to the side, somehow managing not spilling the champagne all over the mattress as he crawls on his knees to her. Eleanor sits up then, smirking as she takes a flute.

“I feel like we should toast or something,” Louis jokes feebly.

Eleanor surprises, “Oh we should!” she hums as she thinks, her gaze finally landing on him and she smirks, “How about we toast to Los Cabos for bringing us together.”

“Yes,” Louis agrees quickly, “Absolutely,” he says and means it. Thank God for Los Cabos.

The clink their glasses and take a sip, Within a few minutes, Louis starts to feel the slight buzz from the drink, stirring up from his gut and bubbles up to his head. Eleanor smiles at him as she takes his empty flute and it makes Louis feel a little dizzy with excitement as he watches her place the glasses on the end table next to the bed.

When Eleanor lays back down against the pillows, Louis leans over his, kissing her quickly, manically. She tastes of champagne and there’s still of hint of ocean salt on his lips. It’s absolutely addicting, and Louis can’t get enough. Eleanor clings onto them as they make out, and soon it becomes heated, their tongues rolling against each other’s. Louis can feel himself getting hard and presses his dick against Eleanor’s thigh for relief. The sound Eleanor makes from that, a mix of a whine and a low groan, goes straight to Louis’ pants.

“Wanna suck you off, Lou,” Eleanor pants out as Louis starts kissing down her neck. Louis bites closes his eyes, feeling lightheaded again, as he bites down on her collarbone. She hisses in response, her body arching up into his, “F-Fuck. I need—have to get my mouth on you.”

Louis goes willingly when Eleanor weakly shoves him down on the space next to her. She’s on top of him in and instant, kissing him roughly as she straddles his chest. Louis likes having her on top of him, loves feeling the pressure of her body on his, loves how he easily he can hold onto her bum like this. He gives it a good squeeze with both hands, and Eleanor jolts against his body.

It almost feels unreal when Eleanor starts unbuttoning his shirt. Maybe they were moving too fast, but Louis just doesn’t give a damn about that right now. Louis sits up to remove his shirt, Eleanor wraps her arms around his neck to hold onto him. Louis feels a bit shy under her stare ass he looks at his chest, smoothing her hands down the front of it.

“You’re so toned,” she mumbles.

Louis scoffs self-consciously, and Eleanor doesn’t let him get away with that.

“You are, Louis,” she insists, and puts her lips on the side of his neck. She kisses him, mumbles into his skin, “You’re gorgeous Lou.”

“You are, El,” Louis insists, his hands going under the hem of her shirt to grip her bare skin. He moves his hands up under her shirt and Eleanor raises her arms up. Louis tosses her shirt to side and gasps at Eleanor’s not wearing a bra and it just-it stuns Louis to say the least. Before they left Lover’s Beach, Louis and Eleanor had changed out of their wet swimsuits for dry clothes in separate restrooms, but Louis thought stupidly that she’d have someone else on underneath. How silly. He softly cups her beast in his hand, feeling the tender flesh and feeling Eleanor gasp against his lips.

“Lay back,” Eleanor demands, her hands pushing him back lightly. Louis falls back easily on the pillows and waits eagerly. She grins down at him, holds his lower body down on the bed with one hand as she scoots backwards, her eyes not breaking content with his. Louis gulps as Eleanor kneels between his spread out legs, and presses the heel of her palm into groin.

Louis hisses, “Fuck, El.”

“Can’t wait to get my mouth on you,” she says thickly. Louis scoffs airily, feeling dizzy.

“Nothing’s stopping you, love,” he retorts, shocked at how quickly Eleanor’s hands go to his fly.

When Eleanor pulls down his shorts and boxers in one go, Louis sighs at the relief on his cock as it springs back, standing up proud.

“Damn you’re thick,” Eleanor comments, her eyes wide. Louis would laugh, but that’s when Eleanor decides to roll the foreskin down, revealing the head. A strangled gasp leaves Louis’ lips as Eleanor jerks him off slowly, her thumb pressing into the slit at the tip. A blurb of precum oozes out and Louis watches with lidded as she watches it go down his cock, “Fuck, Lou. Wanna taste you so bad.”

“P-Please,” Louis rasps, his hips jerking up into her palm.

Thankfully, Eleanor takes pity on him.

A low moan rattles Louis’ throat when Eleanor wraps her lips around the tip, slowly rolling around the head. She hums against his cock, and grips along the base to pump it as she takes more of him in. Louis has to brace himself by gripping his hands into the sheets it’s just too much. Eleanor’s mouth is warm and slick and vibrates every time she moans. He feels her choke around him as the tip nudges the back of her throat.

“F-Fuck, El,” Louis croaks out. He looks down at her, at her fluttering lashes and her lips stretched out. Louis cups her cheek gently to encourage her and feels himself in the side of her mouth, “So good, El—just like that.”

Eleanor tightens his hold on the base of his cock and pumps him harder on what she can’t fit in her mouth. Louis bites his lips, lightly lifting his hips to thrusts just a little into her mouth. Eleanor doesn’t complain but moans approvingly around his dick. Louis takes it as an offer to do more and he does, going a little bit harder and farther in her mouth. He keeps his hands on her hair, pushing her down on his cock to take in as much as she can. She gags around him, but doesn’t back off and Louis’ so, so grateful because he just doesn’t think he could stop now. Her throat’s so tight and warm and just perfect.

“Perfect,” Louis tells her, “God you—you’re perfect, Els.”

Eleanor opens her eyes, and it’s the darkest shade of brown Louis’ has ever seen. She takes her hands off of his dick and moves one to Louis’ balls. She gently massages them in her palm and Louis’ thighs shake at the pleasure.

“S-Shit, Els,” Louis groans, his hips picking up the pace, “I’m close, babe.”

Eleanor doesn’t let up like Louis half expects her to, but rather grips his hips. She controls his sloppy thrusts, making Louis go deeper then before. Within minutes, Louis gut twists in pleasure and he gives her a short notice before he starts cumming. Eleanor draws back a little, enough to keep half his cock in his mouth so she doesn’t choke on his cum. 

Louis sits back, panting and boneless as he tries to catch his breath. Eleanor sucks on the head of his cock until Louis hisses a little in pain and she takes her mouth off of him. Louis feels her kiss her way up his torso, stopping briefly to nibble lightly on his jawline before Louis weakly turns his head to capture her lips with his own. He’s revived by her kiss, feeling the faint trace of himself on her lips, and vigorously licks his tongue into her mouth.

When Eleanor squirms desperately against Louis, he realizes he needs to return the favor.

Louis flips them over, pinning Eleanor down on the bed. He kisses down her chest, sucking on both nipples until Eleanor is withering under his touch. His hands slide under Eleanor’s linin shorts and curses when he sees her sex, pink and glistening and just so tempting.

When Louis pushes two of his fingers in her, Eleanor lets out a low growl.

“L-Lou, please—so close! I—” Eleanor sighs brokenly as Louis begins flicking his fingers up insider her quickly. She fucks herself down on his fingers and Louis is just in awe of her, her scent overwhelming.

“Shit, El,” he exhales, his head resting on her thigh to be close to the action, “You’re so wet, feel so good. Am I making you feel good El? Please tell me I am, babe. Wanna make you cum so hard, just like you made me cum hard.”

Eleanor rasps as Louis slides another finger in her and curls them roughly up. A wispy breath leaves her lips and she desperately clings onto Louis scalp with one hand. Louis can feel her legs quivering under his head.

“T-There, Lou!” She exclaims, “F-Fuck I—so close. N-Need more.”

Louis lets her hand guide his head to her sex, and he opens his mouth eagerly. His tongue flicks lightly on her clit a few times before settling on rolling the tip around the nub teasingly. Eleanor whines desperately at that and pushes Louis head down on her harder. His fingers continue to work insider her, roughly fucking in and out of her.

“I-I,” Eleanor whimpers dazedly, “O-Oh fuck, Lou.”

Louis smirks around her clit before wrapping his lips around the nub. He sucks on it as hard as he can, adding a little tongue action as well. Eleanor gasps hard, chants Louis’ name several times as Louis feels her contract around his fingers as she cums. The fingers in Louis’ hair grow limp as Eleanor’s body gives bursts of trembles as she rides out her orgasm, her hips weakly riding Louis’ fingers. Louis keeps his tongue on her clit with long licks until Eleanor softly pushes him off of her.

“L-Lou,” she begs weakly. Louis looks up at her, and notices Eleanor’s eyes are still closed and there’s a tiny, awed smile on her lips, “T-Too much. I can’t.”

Louis notices, pulling himself up to her. Eleanor hums when she feels Louis kiss her cheek, and instantly wraps her arms around him. It takes a few minutes, but Eleanor’s high wears off enough for her to open her eyes. Louis can’t help but feel proud at how soft Eleanor looks, at how content and blissed she seems.

“That good?” he asks cockily. Eleanor weakly swats his chest, making Louis laugh. But a second later Eleanor buries her face into his chest, snuggling up against his body.

Eleanor tells him, “Arrogance doesn’t suit you,” she tells him, but then admits, “But yes, that was mind blowing. And I don’t ever want to leave this bed.”

“Never?” Louis muses, a smirk drawn up on his lips.

Eleanor shakes her head into his chest, “Never ever.”

They’re shielded in the canopy bed from the outside world, stuck in their own little reality with just the two of them.

Louis likes that idea a lot.

~~~

                Eleanor swears up and down that she doesn’t do this sort of thing.

                Honestly, she insists, she doesn’t.

                Yet here they are, with a practically inseparable Liam and Harry, on a fucking yacht in the Gulf of California.

                Louis is still sorta in awe he’s actually on a luxury yacht, despite being on it for several hours now. Eleanor doesn’t normally splurge so much on a trip, but Santiago offered her the resort yacht, with the attached jet ski as well. And according to Eleanor, he’s offered her the yacht every day of her trip, but she always declined. But apparently, Santiago wouldn’t take no for an answer

                Damn, the resort is really going all out for a good review from Eleanor.

                Louis takes another sip of his Mexican beer and watches Harry whiz off on the jet ski in the distance, with Liam cursing at the top of his lungs and clinging onto Harry’s torso from behind. Louis scoffs at the scene, and suspects that maybe that’s why he’s driving the jet ski to fast just to get Liam to hold onto him. When he gets to her, standing above her as she stays put on the lounge chair

                As if Liam hasn’t stopped touching Harry in some form since the day before.

                (Oh yeah, they’re totally boyfriends now, like super PDA filled boyfriends)

                From the corner of his eye, Louis spots Eleanor coming up onto the deck with a frosted martini glass in one hand. She’s lounging back in a chair, her smooth legs crossed and the topped one bent slightly. She smirks around her straw as she takes a slow sip, looking giddy at Louis’ hard swallow. She motions for him to come to her, and Louis’ on his feet in seconds, making his way towards her in a trance like state. He gets to her within seconds, standing above her as she stays put on the lounge chair.

                “How are the bands working out for you?” Louis asks, pointing at the anti-seasickness bands on Eleanor’s wrists. The concierge at the resort had some pairs of them at the front desk and Louis got a pair for Eleanor when he heard they were going on the yacht today.

                Eleanor hums happily, her eyes sparkling, “They work like a charm. Thanks Lou.”

                “Why are you looking at me like that?” Louis asks, bemused. Eleanor’s gaze drops to his waist and teasingly runs her cold fingers along the waistband of his swimming trunks.

                “Red is totally your color,” she comments wistfully, and snaps the waistband just above his dick.

                Louis lets out a small gasp, “El,” he says warningly.

                “C’mon, Lou,” Eleanor tempts him, peering up at him over the rims of her sunglasses. She gives a coy smile that doesn’t match her boldness, “Harry and Liam are out in the ocean, they won’t see a thing.”

                Shaking his head, Louis informs her, “We’re not fooling around on a yacht, babe.”             

                “And why not?” she tests him, cocking an eyebrow at Louis. He can play this game just as easily as she can, Louis decides, both being excellent at teasing each other.

                Louis couches down, crowding Eleanor’s space and stopping just an inch above her lips. He looks at her dead in the eye, seeing how interested and silent she has become, waiting for his response. It’s just fascinating, really.

                “Because,” he starts out plainly, “You won’t be able to be as loud as you were last night,” he tells her, and plants a soft kiss on her stunned lips before moving to her ear to whisper, “And I wanna hear everything, El.”

                When Louis draws back, he sees the palpable desire in Eleanor’s gaze. A second later she wraps her lips around the straw and takes a long, auditable slip of her drink. The gesture makes Louis grin at himself.

                “Promise you’ll make it up to me?” Eleanor asks.

                Louis agrees, “I promise babe.”

                He plops down beside Eleanor and picks the camera off the table. The sun is high in the sky with no clouds at all, giving Louis perfect lighting for pictures. He snaps a couple of just the water, endless rolls of mystic blue ocean water the stretch out in the far distance. Louis then takes pictures of Eleanor basking in the sun on the large net bed at the back of the boat. Liam and Harry are just pulling back up to the yacht when Louis deems he’s got enough pictures.

                “How is it out there?” Louis asks Harry as he fits the life vest over his head. One of the crew members fits the jacket to Louis’ body, buckling the straps as tight as they will go.

                Harry shakes out his curls and beams at Louis, “Fucking amazing!” Louis smirks knowingly at him.

                “You and Liam seemed pretty cozy,” he comments, his gaze finding Eleanor off in the distance. Another crew member is giving her a quick run through on how to manage the jet ski. Her concentrated little pout makes Louis grins. When he looks by at Harry, Louis frowns at his knowing expression.

                “What?”

                Harry shakes his head, “So did you and Eleanor planned on matching swimsuits, or?” he comments, pointing out Eleanor’s red two piece. Louis scoffs.

                “Fuck you,” he retorts lamely, earning a laugh from Harry.

                “I’m just saying, Liam and I aren’t the only ones being all cuddly today.”

                Louis shrugs, “We’re just having fun.”

                “Yeah right,” Harry strikes that down, “I think you two are very cute, by the way, and I totally support whatever relationship you two have.”

                “Well,” Louis responds slowly, his mind searching for some sort of answer to deflect this conversation, “You and Liam aren’t that cute to be honest.”

                “Fuck you!” Harry shouts at Louis as he walks away. Louis goes down the steps to a small side deck where the jet ski wades in the water beside it. Eleanor’s already on it, looking confident and giddy, and Louis can’t help but take another picture of her.

                “Ready?” Eleanor asks as Louis saddles up on the jet ski behind her. He wraps his arounds around her torso, and the bulky lifejacket is annoying because Louis can’t just her skin. But still, it’s just nice holding onto her, and being this close to her.

                Eleanor starts revving up the jet ski, and Louis holds onto her tighter.

                “Ready,” he whispers in her ear.

~~~

                “I told ya you needed to put on more sunscreen,” Eleanor comments into Louis’ chest, her fingers skimming softly over Louis’ harsh red collarbones.

                Louis bites his lip when she presses a little harder into his skin, “It’s fine.”

                “It’s not,” Eleanor says dotingly. Louis groans distastefully as she goes out of his reach, instantly missing the heat of her body. But he does get a wonderful view of Eleanor’s pert naked bum as she trots off to the bathroom without saying another word.

                Louis heaves a large breath as he sits up in the bed. They’re in Eleanor’s room this time, mainly because her room was closer to the elevators and neither one of them could wait another second. Since the yacht trip earlier in the day, Eleanor’s clung to his side. When they got into the elevator, Louis couldn’t take it any more and made out with her. They’ve been in bed for the last couple of hours, heavily making out and fooling around under the sheets until their desires had been completely satisfied.

                Louis rubs his eyes, and his gaze lands on the unpacked suitcases off to the side. A sinking feeling beholds him, yet another stark reminder that this is all temporary and his moments with Eleanor and his time in Los Cabos are dwindling. His blissful happiness is gone, replaced with a dreaded sadness that comes with reality.

                Eleanor’s bare footsteps against the wood floors break Louis’ thoughts. She’s thrown on a stretched out, beige tank top she must use for pajamas and a pair of panties. Louis smirks softly at her when he notices the bottle of aloe in her hands. She comes back to the bed and kneels on the mattress beside Louis.

                “This should help,” she says as she rubs in the aloe. It does, Louis almost sighs at the soothing ointment on his skin.

                “Thanks,” he says once Eleanor’s done.

                Eleanor gives him a sweet kiss for good measure. She settles back in bed and drops her head on his shoulder as she turns on the TV over the dresser on the wall across the bed. She lands on a show, what looks like a Mexican game show of some kind that seems too crazy to try and understand what’s going on, but Eleanor keeps the show on regardless. Louis keeps swallowing thickly, wanting to ask her something but can’t quite brave it.

                “Is something wrong?” Eleanor asks after a little while. Louis looks over and sees her lips drawn in a tight line.

                Louis hates seeing the worried expression on her face.

                “I just—” he begins, but still searches for the right words. Eventually he sorts out his thoughts after a moment and asks, “Have you…ever considered settling down?”

                Eleanor purses her lips, “Settling down?”

                “Yeah like, you know—stop traveling so much and staying in New York?”

                “But my blog is my job,” she says lowly, “I travel for work, literally.”

                Louis sighs, “Yeah, you’re right I—dunno. Just a dumb thought.”

                “Hey, no,” Eleanor touches his arm, making him look at her again. She rubs his forearm slightly and tells him, “Just tell me whatever it is you want to ask me.”

                An awkward silence falls between them as Louis manages his thoughts.

                “Do you,” Louis begins slowly after a moment, “Do you see yourself doing this for the rest of your life? Traveling nonstop that is?”

                Eleanor blinks and answers bluntly, “Yes, I do. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

                Oh.

                Louis wasn’t expecting that.

“But like,” he continues, “What if you one day find a guy one day that you’d want to settle down with?”

Eleanor’s eyes widen slightly, but her lips remain tightly pressed together. Louis wants to know what the Hell is going on in her mind because the moment or so of silence is thick and unbearable. Perhaps this was a mistake, a huge mistake for Louis bring this up and he has an apology on his tongue for her.

But then.

“I’d ask him to come with me,” Eleanor says, her voice awfully quiet and serious. Louis can feel his heartrate pick up because Eleanor’s just looking at him stoically. She tells him again, her eyes locked on his, “I’d ask him to see the world with me.”

Louis exhales deeply, unsure what to think because it suddenly feels like he’s on a carnival ride going faster then he can bare. Surely, she can’t mean that she would ask Louis to join her. He barely knows Eleanor, and it’s too soon and it’s—just not realistic or smart at all. At the same time though, Eleanor just keeps looking at him, and she herself seems slightly unsure.

But then Eleanor whispers his name, “Louis,” and he holds his breath.

There’s a knock on the door, and someone announcing they’re from room service. Louis’ totally forgotten the food they order a little while ago. But that knock end the moment instantly as Eleanor waits a moment before leaving the bed to answer the door.

Louis’ left alone on the bed, still trying to catch his breath and unsure if he’s grateful for the distraction or not.


	4. Chapter Four

For Liam and Harry’s last day in Los Cabos, Eleanor Lets them pick whatever they want to do for a last adventure.

                Which ends up being that Liam decides what they all do, which is riding ATVs out in the middle of the desert.

                Louis didn’t think he’d like doing it as much as he does like riding ATVs. He’s never been a car person or a motorcycle person for that matter, and never felt the need to drive fast. But he likes it, he likes it a lot! It’s safer then he thought it would be, with wearing bulky helmets and padding being required while you drive. The terrier is bumpy and dry, with trails of dust following each ATV as they drive by, going close to eighty miles per hour.

                During the whole time, Eleanor was on the same ATV as Louis was on, sitting behind him and holding onto him. She squealed and cursed him when Louis accelerated faster.

                As the evening draws closer and closer, all four of them go to Louis’ room because it’s the largest. Harry decides on room service pizza and margaritas for dinner and dressing up in pajamas for a game night to cap off the night.

                “Shit, Harry,” Louis comments after a laugh when Liam and Harry arrive in his room. There’s a stack of board games in Harry’s arms that go up to his chin.

                Liam sighs tiredly, “Yeah, Harry brings his board games everywhere he travels.”

                “What?” Harry asks, slightly offended, “Everyone loves board games.”

                No one comments to agree with Harry.

                They all pick Pictionary to play because, at least to Louis, it seems like the least insufferable game in Harry’s collection. Liam demands to be on Harry’s team, because of course he would want to play with his boyfriend. Eleanor shyly looks at Louis, who puts on a smile and gives Eleanor an encouraging high-five.

                The thing is, since last night’s weird conversation, neither one of them have brought it up again. Louis has no idea why Eleanor’s mum about it, but he knows why he’s been quiet about it. He doesn’t want to know what she has to say about it, because he’s scared. Because he just warmed up to the idea of just having fun with Eleanor, without getting too caught up in what it all means.

                Plus, him and Eleanor only have three days left in Los Cabos, and it’s been a fucking amazing trip. Louis doesn’t want to ruin it now, doesn’t want to leave a bitter taste in either one of their mouths.

                Eleanor, as it turns out, is very competitive at Pictionary. It helps that she’s a decent drawer, and a quick one at that too. During the second round of the game, she hastily draws out a few vertical lines on an angle, the lines drawing closer together towards the top. Louis focuses on the drawing on the small notebook as Eleanor connects the two lines at the bottom, and adds on what looks like a door.

                “A house!” Louis shouts, and Eleanor points at him, and then motions for him to go on. But Louis doesn’t have anything to elaborate on, so he watches Eleanor draw out four more lines at the top of the structure, all going out at different, rotating angles.

                 After she embellishes the four lines, making them thicker on one end and thinner towards their centers, Louis finally gets the picture.

                “A windmill!” he exclaims happily.

                Eleanor jumps up and down as she points at him, “Yes, Yes!” She gives Louis a high five and Louis can’t help but feel proud, even if it’s just a dumb game.

                “Dammit,” Liam mumbles, “We lost again.”

                Louis looks over and sees Harry rub his boyfriends’ shoulder, “I’m sorry babe. Pictionary’s not my best game.”

                “It’s okay love,” Liam says, giving Harry a quick kiss to his cheek, “I thought your picture of a sailboat was just lovely. We should put it on our fridge when we get back home.”

                Harry snorts and shoves his boyfriend to the side, “Fuck off.”

                Louis looks over to the two guys and waits until they’ve stopped laughing to tell them.

                “Thank you,” he says earnestly, “For buying me a drink the first night I got here.”

                Suddenly, their fun filled day is grown serious. Louis hates the sudden shift, but he has to be honest, has to say this now before he forgets, or they leave without him telling them. Harry and Liam exchange looks, and suddenly Eleanor’s hand is in his, giving it a good squeeze for good measure.

                Louis goes on, “I just—I’ve been through so much shit and I—I needed this. I needed to let loose and have some fun and,” she smiles at the two men, “I’m so thankful I met you guys. You helped make this an amazing trip. I’m happy to see you two also had the trip of a lifetime and are finally together, because you two are pretty amazing on your own but together you’re like, really awesome.”

                “Oh, Louis,” Harry sighs happily, earning a hard eyeroll from Louis.

                “Just know I mean it—I’m so fucking happy I met you guys, all of you,” form the corner of his eye, he sees Eleanor smiling, but Louis’ too focused on Liam’s bashful, slightly uncomfortable look. It’s clear he doesn’t like being the center of attention, but he deserves to be, at least for a little bit. Louis adds, “I’ll miss you both, and hope we all stay in touch. If you’re ever in Boston for some reason, we guys can stay at my place.”

                Harry hops up form his spot on the ground and tackles Louis to the ground to give him the tightest bear hug Louis’ ever had. Seriously holy shit, Harry’s stronger then he looks. Soon Liam and Eleanor join in, piling on top of Louis. He feels the weight of all three of them on his chest and can’t breathe and yet he’s laughing at the same time as well.

                It’s a great feeling.

~~~

                “Which one do you like better?”

                Louis turns around at Eleanor’s question. She’s holding two brightly colored, hand painted sugar skulls on both hands. The design on both are slightly different but still have different patterns and lines on them, depicting flowers and swirls and other shapes as well. Louis looks them over for a few seconds because both are just stunning and beautifully artistic.

                “That one,” he finally decides, pointing to the one of the left, “I dunno, the colors seem to fit you more in that one.”

                Eleanor nods, and looks at her two options for another second before agreeing with Louis.

                After saying goodbye to Liam and Harry, neither Louis or Eleanor wanted to do much of anything for the rest of the day. Louis told her how he promised his sisters and Earnest he’d bring them back little souvenirs and that he needed to go shopping. Eleanor was more then happy to go along, and Santiago recommended a market in town. It reads a little touristy for Louis’ taste and is awfully crowded. But there is a wide selection of stuff, everything from handmade items form local artists to high volume manufactured goods too. Louis has more then enough to pick form for his siblings, and he wants to find something perfect for his mom too, to thank her for being especially amazing over the last month or so.

                “So, do you buy souvenirs for every trip you go on?” Louis asks Eleanor once they’re onto the next store. They found a venture selling chocolate covered bananas and it’s a perfect sweet treat to keep them cool as they shop.

                Eleanor nods as she finishes off her bite, “I always get something, even if it’s small. I’ve taken actual geological parts of some of the places I’ve been to.”

                “Such as?” Louis asks

                “Sand from Italy, seashells from Key West, glass from a beach in California,” Eleanor shrugs, “I just get little mementos from every place I go and keep them all over my apartment in New York. And I have the perfect spot on my shelf for this little sugar skull.”

                A tiny smile forms on Eleanor’s lips and it sorta makes Louis’ gut sink a little.

                They only have three days left.

                Lottie, as usual, turns out to be the hardest one to buy something for, mainly because she can be so picky about gifts. Louis doesn’t have the best track record with gifts he’s given her in the past so he wants to make up for it with an awesome present.

                Eleanor hums as she stands beside Louis, she too looking over all the selections in the new store.

                “You said Lottie’s difficult to get gifts for?” Louis nods as he sides, and Eleanor asks, “What about your other siblings and your mom? Did you finish getting presents for them?”

                Louis nods again, telling her, “Maracas for Doris and Earnest. My mom’s gonna kill me for giving them something so loud,” Eleanor giggles and Louis just has to wait until she’s done laughing. She has the best laugh. Louis goes on, “Hand woven purses for Daisy and Phobes, a hand painted frog for Flizz and a ceramic bowl for my mom.”

                “Impressive,” Eleanor says, her eyes continuing to look.

                “Yeah well, I know what to get for everyone else but Lottie,” Louis groans.

                But then Eleanor gasps, “Oh, hey—why not get her one of these Mexican style blankets?”

                Louis follows her finger where it’s pointing at the opposite wall. Excitement billows in his chest that there’s a small chance he might be done shopping soon.

                “You said Lottie is living with her boyfriend, right?” Eleanor asks.

                Louis confirms, “Right, yeah.”

                “Well, a blanket like that would be a great piece of art for her apartment and a conversation starter also,” she grins at Louis, her brown eyes bright and happy. Louis feels his heart melting a little as Eleanor finishes with, “It’ll serve both function and art—she’ll love it!”

                “Yeah,” Louis agrees, and lets Eleanor drag him over to the display of blankets. Within a few minutes they decide on one with a more neutral color palette for Lottie, boasting navy blue, grey and white with blocked sections of all colors and one section having a crisscross partner.

                “Think Lottie will like that?” Eleanor asks as they head to the register.

                “Yeah,” Louis says excitedly, “Thank you again for helping me. I have a lot of people to shop for.”

                Eleanor laughs, “’Must be Hell around Christmas.”

                “You have no idea,” Louis muses, but then tells her, “Thanks again, for everything I mean. This whole trip has just been incredible.”

                Eleanor smirks, and to Louis she looks a little said too. She has to feel it, has to feel the enviable end like he does. Fuck, if Louis’ hurting this much now, he doesn’t have a clue how he’ll handle it a few days from now.

                “Louis,” Eleanor says flatly, giving him a small smile. She takes Louis’ hand in hers and gives it a firm squeeze before saying, “This trip has been amazing and I—I’ll never forget it, or you. I can’t tell you how happy I am that I was able to give you this experience. You should feel incredible every day, Lou. You of all people deserve that.”

                Louis huffs out a stunned breath before his lips curl up in a smile. He leans over and kisses her chastely. When he pulls back, Eleanor’s lips are a little wobbly.

                “Are you okay?” he asks, frowning.

                Eleanor nods stiffly, and can’t quite look at him in the eye, “Yeah, um. I just—think I need some water. You go pay for the blanket while I go find some water.”

                “I can go with you,” Louis offers, but Eleanor shakes her head.

                “It’s fine—I’ll be fine. I’ll meet outside the store?” Louis purses his lip and nods. Eleanor flashes a small smile before turning around and leaving the store briskly.

                Hm. Louis’ not sure what to think of that.

                As he looks back and watches Eleanor leave, Louis spots something that makes his heart flutter.

                Off to the side of the store is a glass case full of jewelry. Louis wonders over towards it, and he can’t look away from the necklace front and center. The necklace holds a small pendent, maybe three inches at the most, and the base looks to be some sort of metal. Etched on the metal around the circle is a sun design, and smack in the middle of the sun is a turquoise stone.

                “Ah,” Louis flinches a little at the sudden voice, but eases once he sees the sales person behind the counter. The woman grins at Louis as the points to the very necklace he’s looking at, “That necklace right there is beautiful, yes?” she asks in her broken English.

                Louis nods, “It’s lovely.”

                “Turquoise is a beautiful stone,” she goes on, “It’s Mexican turquoise, of course, and it symbolizes tranquility, wisdom and protection.” Louis makes a face at the last one.

                “Protection?” The woman smiles.

                “Ancient warriors and kings used it to protect themselves on long journeys, believing turquoise has powers of healing. Many believe that turquoise spiritually represents the merging of Earth and Sky, which are symbols for man and woman.”

                Louis straightens his stance a little, “Oh?”

                “Turquoise is believed to stimulate the intuitions of romantic love,” the woman muses, giving Louis a knowing smirk, “That necklace would look lovely on the woman you came in here with, yes?”

                And maybe the woman is just too good at her job, but Louis does agree with that. That necklace would be proud to be worn on Eleanor’s neck. The color of the turquoise stone would pop off of her skin tone beautifully and the simple, yet detailed etching of the sun just seems to fit Eleanor so well.

                Louis wasn’t planning on buying Eleanor a gift, but now he can’t imagine Eleanor without the necklace. Plus, selfishly, Louis thinks that she’s always have this necklace to remember him by.

                “Ready?” Eleanor asks him a few minutes later when Louis’ out of the store, “I already called the driver to pull up.”      

                Louis clinches the new bag in his hand, it joins three other bags as well. He made sure the sales person in the store wrapped the necklace in a box and folded it into the center of the blanket, so Eleanor wouldn’t see it.

                Louis nods at her, “I’m good to go.”

                On the way back to the hotel, the two are quiet, with Eleanor half asleep on Louis’ shoulder and their hands interlocked on Eleanor’s lap. The whole time, a plan takes motion in Louis’ mind.

~~~

                “Where are you taking me?” Eleanor asks for the tenth time since they got into the car.

                Louis scoffs and squeezes her hand, “I’m not telling you, so stop asking,” he jokes playfully. Eleanor’s bright red lips pouts adorably, her eyes covered by one of Louis’ ties her brought on the trip. He hasn’t told a thing, only to dress up in something nice. Which Eleanor does of course, looking stylish and sleek in a white blouse with a cutout on the chest, and a pair of black capris that go wide at the end with a pair of nude heels. She’s styled her hair in a low ponytail.

                Louis pails in comparison to Eleanor, but feels he’s spiffed up quite nicely in a white short sleeve button up and grey khaki shorts. It’s a bit chilly, so Louis’ thrown on a cerulean blue bomber jacket, and opts for tan boating loafers. He’s parted his hair in a high quiff, which Eleanor loved the second the saw him.

                Louis is practically bouncing in his car seat, “I think we’re getting close now.”

                “I hope so,” Eleanor grumbles, but Louis sees her smile, “I hate surprises.”

                Louis scoffs, “Your smile seems to say otherwise, Els.” He leans over and gives her a brisk peck on her lips.

                Eleanor hums, “I liked that surprise.” Louis taunts her.

                “Well, you’re really going to love what else instore for tonight.”

                A whine comes out of Eleanor, “C’mon Lou—gimme a clue at least!”

                “Nope,” Louis says, barely holding back a snicker. He hasn’t told Eleanor a thing about tonight, only that he had something planned for tonight.

                After ten minutes of Eleanor trying to kiss any sort of information out of Louis, they finally pull up to their destination. Louis helps Eleanor out of the car and still keeps trying to get answers from him, but Louis’ tight lipped.

                “I think I hear the ocean,” Eleanor muses and Louis curses slightly to himself, “And oh—are we walking on a dock of some kind?! We’re on the beach aren’t we?”

                Louis groans, “Dammit El, you really are bad at surprises.”

                “But I’m good at guessing,” she boasts, clearly proud of herself. Louis squeezes her hips, and Eleanor yelps, reaching back to swat Louis that only half lands on his shoulder, “Hey, don’t get mad at me because I guessed your grand plan.”

                Louis grins and keeps quiet until they’re at the spot.

                “Okay El, I’m gonna take your blindfold off on the count of three,” he tells her.

                Eleanor pleas, “Can’t you just take it off now?” Louis shakes his head, but seeing how excited she is for the surprise means the world to him.

                “I can raise it to ten if you like.”

                Eleanor sighs loudly, “Ugh fine!”

                Louis smirks victoriously as he goes in front of her, placing his arms on her shoulders. He just takes a second to admire her gorgeous smile before beginning the countdown.

                “One, two—”    

                Eleanor squeals.

                Louis beams as he reaches around to loosen up the tie.

                “Three.”

                He moves over one step once the blindfold is off Eleanor, so she can see the area that’s been set up just for them. It’s wonderful, seeing how wide her amber eyes go, the stunned little ‘o’ shape on her lips and the small gasp that exhales from her. He did that, his surprise garnered that reaction from her. To say Louis is ecstatic is an understatement.

                A romantic, candlelight dinner for two on the beach awaits them. Fairy lights stretch across two palm trees that stand on either side of the table. Two plates under cloaks sit on the table, with a small bunch of yellow roses with pink tips in a vase sat in the middle. A bottle of white wine on ice stands off to the side, but the real show stopper, Louis thinks, is the backdrop. The ocean is calm off in the distance, with gentle waves rolling back and forth. The sun is casting low in the sky but won’t set for another good hour or so.

                “Oh my god, Louis,” Eleanor whispers in awe, “Wait—are we at the hotel?”

                Louis nods, biting back a smile, “The staff-they set up everything. And they did a wonderful job at that. All I had to do was buy them time.”

                Eleanor turns around at that, her jaw dropped, “You seriously put this all together?”

                “Well it turns out,” Louis begins to explain as he leads the way to the table, “That the concierge here at the hotel is really fucking amazing and will do anything for their guests.”

                Eleanor giggles at that, soft and slightly shocked. Louis pulls out her seat for her and they soon begin their dinner. When Louis had reached out to Flora at the front desk for help on this, she recommended ordering the sea scallops with pineapple salsa on spiced rice. Louis’ glad he listened to her, because the meal is wonderful and him and Eleanor can’t stop raving about it after each bite.

                They talk as they eat, mainly about the activity they did earlier in the day. Eleanor has always wanted to go parasailing and was happy to see there was a place close to the hotel that did parasailing. Louis thought it was fun as well, how quickly the soared up and out of the water and up to a couple stories in the sky. It was beautiful, seeing the beach from hope high. But Eleanor screaming with happiness, and her head clinch to his as they were high above truly made Louis feel like they were flying.

                “I love roses,” Eleanor says softly after dinner is done. She touches a petal of one of the flowers between two of her fingers, “I’ve never seen roses look like this before.”

                Louis swallows hard as he pulls the box out of his pocket. He places it on the table and slides it over to Eleanor.

                “Oh Louis,” she sighs, looking up at him with curious eyes, “What’s this?”

                “Just a little thank you gift,” Louis tells her. Eleanor shakes her head.

                “You didn’t need to—”

                Louis reaches over and squeezes her hand on the table, making her silent.

                “I wanted to,” he tells her earnestly, and Eleanor’s lips perk. He instructs her, “Just open it.”

                Eleanor seems a bit reluctant, but after a moment she picks up the box. Louis holds her breath as she opens the box. She smiles in awe at the present and looks up to Louis in the same manner.

                “Louis, it’s—” she sighs, moving her eyes back to the gift, “It’s beautiful, so beautiful.”

                “That’s real Mexican turquoise,” Louis informs her, his own voice weak, “It um, the lady at the store told me turquoise represents a lot of stuff. But one thing it represents is protection.”

                Eleanor tilts her head, her lips pursed, “Protection?”

                “I guess warriors used to wear it on their armor as they traveled,” Louis flashes a tight, nervous grin at her before revealing, “I wanted to give you this so that wherever you end up in the world, whatever adventures you go on, you’ll be safe.”

                “Oh Lou,” Eleanor sighs thickly. She leans over and kisses him on the cheek. When she pulls back, she looks at Louis directly and tells him, “I’ll wear it every day.”

                “You don’t have to,” Louis assures her quickly.

                Eleanor shakes her head, “I want to. You gave it to me and that—” she stops herself, her eyes shining as she says, “That means the world to me, Louis. I’ll never, ever forget you, you’ll always be with me now. Thank you—I can’t tell you how much this means to me.”

                A pleasant warmth that isn’t from the slightly humid air spreads over Louis’ skin.

                “It’s nothing El,” Louis tries again, insisting, “It’s nothing compared to what you’ve given me the past week.”

                Eleanor pauses for a moment, her silence deafening and makes Louis anxious.

                Then.    

                “You’ve given me so much Louis,” she whispers earnestly, “This—it’s not just nothing to me, it’s everything.”

                Louis casts his eyes away, because Eleanor’s gaze is just too strong. He wants to know what she means by that but can’t bring himself to ask her.

                “Don’t argue me on this, Lou,” Eleanor says, attempting to lighten up the tone. Louis scoffs and flashes her small grin. She sweetly looks up at Louis and asks, “Can you put this on for me, please?”

                Louis nods and the two get up from the table. He tumbles with the tiny clasps of the necklace for a bit, and his sweaty palms aren’t helping him either. But eventually he opens the clasp and drapes the necklace on Eleanor’s chest. He hocks the clasps together from behind Eleanor, and she spins around to face him. She smiles down at the necklace, her fingers timidly tracing over the sun.

                “It’s gorgeous,” she says in awe.

                Louis tells her earnestly, “You are, El.”

                A bashful smile spreads over Eleanor’s lips.

                “I have one more surprise,” Louis tells her, and Eleanor scoffs lightly.

                “You’re good at surprises, aren’t you?”

                Louis agrees, “They’re my specialty,” he extends his hand, which Eleanor takes happily, and Louis leads them over towards the waters. Eleanor takes off her heels and Louis takes off his own should once they’re fully on the beach. The water is cool as the tide comes up to wash over their feet. The sunset is reflecting off of the ocean in the horizon and if it were any other time other then tonight, Louis would be reaching for his camera.

                But here, in the moment, the only thing he wants in his hand is Eleanor’s.

                “So, this is it?” Eleanor taunts softly, her lips stretched in an easy smile, “Just a stroll on the beach.”

                Louis makes a face, “Not quite,” he says. Eleanor tilts her head, frowning at him briefly as Louis pulls out a remove from his pocket. Against a palm tree close by, Louis’ Bluetooth speaker that he placed their earlier kicks on, playing some soft acoustic instrumental song. A soft, surprise look overcomes Eleanor’s features and it just—it’s lovely. He feels so lucky that he’s the only one who gets to see that look on her face.

                “We’re dancing on the beach,” he tells her.

                Eleanor scoffs, and seems still a little shocked as Louis moves in. He places on hand on her hip and picks up her hand in his other one. Eleanor holds onto his upper back with her free hand, and tucks her head next to his, their ears practically touching as they begin to sway together.

                “Louis something Tomlinson,” Eleanor says softly, making Louis laugh.

                “It’s William,” he tells her.

                Eleanor giggles softly, “Louis William Tomlinson, you sure pull out all the stops for a girl.”

                “Hm,” Louis hums as they begin to rotate a little. He smirks into the shell of her ear as he whispers, “Not just any girl.”

                He knows he shouldn’t be saying this shit. Back in his mind, Louis recalls saying this sort of thing to Perrie after months of dating, and almost a year of just being friends first. He’s moving too quickly, and they don’t have any time for this sort of thing. And yet, that’s exactly why Louis’ saying these things, and doing these things for Eleanor, because they don’t have time. They only have now, and another day of time together. And Louis will do everything he can to savor their final moments togethers.

                Eleanor huffs out a breath as the tide comes in again, drowning their feet in foamy waters and making in damn near impossible to dance. Yet somehow, they manage okay. Eleanor’s a better dancer then Louis is, but she seems content with just swaying to the dreamy guitar music. Louis’ more then happy to just hold her close and peck her cheek any chance he gets.

                “Louis,” Eleanor whispers after some time, just as some stars begin to show in the darkening sky. She digs her fingers into his upper back as she softly says, “I need you, Lou. Please.”

                Louis gulps thickly as he nods, turning his cheek to kiss Eleanor deeply. The waters rush up, landing midcalf for Louis but neither seemed bothered by the tide. Louis’ barely focused on kissing Eleanor, because she keeps licking his lips, wanting to hastening things along. But somehow, Louis’ able to break the kiss, and has he tries to catch his breath, Eleanor still gives in for another kiss after a second.

                “Not here, love,” Louis says hotly. Eleanor pouts, but sighs as she nods.

                They’re quick about grabbing their shoes and Louis’ speaking before heading back to the hotel. When they enter the lobby, they’re holding hands and Flora gives Louis a knowing wink as they walk by. Louis vows to leave a stellar review for this resort once this is all said and done. But for now, Louis’ too focused on the night ahead of them.

                Eleanor pulls him into the elevator and once the doors close, she backs Louis up into a corner, kissing him hungerly. A surprised yelp leaves his lips when her hand gropes his slightly hardening dick through his shorts. He moans against Eleanor’s lips as she rubs him off, and by the time the elevator stops on their floor, he’s half hard and his mind is moving a million miles per hour.

                “E-El,” Louis exhales dizzily as the elevator doors open up. Eleanor grins darkly as she reaches around, and picks Louis’ room key out of his back pocket.

                And then she’s gone, trotting away quickly into the hallway.

                Louis lets out a stunned huff before stepping out. He tries to walk as fast as he can but the tent in his pants hinders him from moving more then a waddling pace. When he gets to his room, the door’s wide open and Louis closes it and locks the door, doubling bolting it so no one can disturbe their night in paradise.

                When he walks farther into his room, his jaw goes slightly ajar when he sees Eleanor striping down already. Her pants are on the ground, and Louis chuckles as he sees her struggle to pull her blouse over her head.

                “Louis,” Eleanor cries out pathetically. After a few more seconds of her wiggling around fruitlessly, she stops and huffs, “Help me!”

                At her beck and call, Louis swoops in, quickly yanking her blouse over her head. Eleanor smiles gratefully at him and rewards him with a swift kiss that lingers on for a moment. She brings to toy with the buttons on his shirt as she licks into his lips, and Louis grips onto Eleanor’s hips as he moans into her mouth.

                “Now you,” she demands hotly once they’ve separated. Louis’ patient, giving Eleanor tender kisses along the side of her jaw and holding her close against him as her nimble fingers make quick work of his buttons. In no time, Louis’ shucking off his shirt as Eleanor’s hands go for his belt buckle. A second later, as Eleanor kisses his teasingly slow just to throw him off, her hands are sliding under his shorts and peels them off his body to join his shirt on the floor.

                 The slot against each other, they’re knees sliding in between each other’s legs. Eleanor palms him off through his boxers and Louis exhales sharply.

                “E-El,” he heaves. Eleanor lets out a low, holds tightly onto him as she grinds against his upper thigh.

                She whispers lowly into the shell of his ear, “Fuck, Lou—can you feel that? F-Feel how wet I am for you?”

                In response, Louis pulls them back on the bed. Eleanor yelps in surprise but quickly changes into a breathy moan once Louis snakes his hand down to her sex and presses his thumb to her clit through her thin panties. She curses against his lips, kissing him eagerly with soft little moans increasingly escaping her.

                “You’re soaked, babe,” Louis mumbles, and goes in to nibble her bottom lip. He presses harder, using his first two fingers to circle her clit roughly. Eleanor clings onto him and moans brokenly, and Louis can feel her body shaking. He smirks at his work on her and muses, “You’re close yeah? So fucking close already and we haven’t even done anything.”

                Eleanor tilts her head back as she sighs, “L-Lou—I.”

                “I wanna taste you, El,” Louis goes on, pulling her closer against his body as he goes on, “Wanna feel you come just on my tongue,” Eleanor gasps sharply and he grins, “Yeah, you like that hm? You wanna sit on my face, love?”

                “Fuck yeah,” Eleanor pleads. Louis takes his hand away from her sex, ignoring the whimper of protest from her. He runs his hands under her panties and kneads her bum in both hands before pushing them off down her legs until she’s able to kick them off completely.

                Louis lays back and waits a beat before Eleanor’s clambering up the length his body. Her toned thighs frame his face, and Louis sighs contently at her scent. They’ve fooled around so much over the last few days that Louis’ used to it, craves it. He licks his lips and holds onto the side of Eleanor’s legs. He looks up and—and Eleanor’s staring down at him, her eyes black with lust and her hair wild and free as it cascades down to the side.

                Slowly, Eleanor lowers herself down on his tongue.

                Louis hums as he traces the walls inside her, rolling his tongue slowly in and out. Eleanor lets out a sharp breath and grips onto his hair. She pulls him up more into her sex, gasping as Louis’ nose brushes against her clit.

                “Fuck,” she heaves softly, and begins to move her hips in little circle-eight motions.

                Louis loves this, absolutely loves this. He closes his eyes and savors everything about this. The light weight of Eleanor’s body on his, the taste of her saturating his senses, her thighs trembling around him, hearing the breathy moans and quick, airy breathes all from him pleasuring her.

                It’s remarkable.

                “S-So close,” Eleanor rasps, jutting her hips down more quickly.

Louis opens his eyes, and groans as he sees Eleanor. Her eyes are close, mouth parted in ecstasy, and he’s more determined now than ever before to get her off. He wraps his arms around her hips, holding her down on his tongue as he flicks it erratically. It only takes a minute of this, of Eleanor’s body trashing out in delight before Louis feels her tighten around his tongue and she grows still as she lets out a high moan. Louis feels his cock jerk up from this, and a blurb of precum oozes out of him as he licks her off through her high.

He has to get inside of her, like yesterday.

“L-Lou,” she rasps, her hand petting his hair softly. Louis chuckle, and lifts Eleanor off of his face because she’s become limp. He arranges her so she’s laying down on top of him, somehow avoiding his painfully hard cock. Louis holds onto her sides, kisses her forehead as she calms down a bit.

“You’re still shaking,” Louis comments as he cards his fingers in her hair.

Eleanor scoffs into his chest, “Dunno if you know this, but you,” she makes a point to prod his chest, “have a fantastic tongue, and you know how to use it.”

“Really?” Louis beams, pride swelling in his chest. He feels Eleanor’s lashes against his skin, and he can only imagine she’s rolling her eyes at him.

“Don’t be too boastful, mister,” she picks her head up, her eyes blissfully sparkling from her orgasm, “You still have to prove to me your cock is as good as your mouth.”

Louis smiles around her finger where Eleanor’s tracing his lips. He can still taste her on his lips, can still feel the slickness outlined on his lips.

They haven’t had sex yet, not the all the way kind. They’ve gotten each other off with their mouths and hands but they haven’t done anymore.

But Louis’ excited to do more.

“You up for it?” Louis asks, “I don’t want it to be too much for you.”

Eleanor huffs, “I have good stamina, thank you very much,” she muses and Louis chuckles, “I would ask you if you’re up for it, but I think this thing,” Louis inhales slowly, loudly as Eleanor grips him through his boxer briefs. She grins wickedly, “This says you’re up for it.”

“Definitely up for it,” he needlessly confirms. Eleanor grins victoriously.

“You got a condom?” she asks, and—wow this is actually happening. Okay, Louis’ too fucking excited for this. He nods quickly, swallows thickly as Eleanor rolls off of him. He gets up slowly, wincing at his trapped, fully hard dick as he gets up. He moves as fast as he can to his suitcases. He packed it before the day before the rehearsal dinner, making sure he had enough condoms for his honeymoon. He discovered them once he got to Los Cabos, totally forgotten he packed them. He thought he wouldn’t need them, but now—now he’s giving his past self a huge fucking high five.

Once he retrieved the condom, Louis turns back around to the bed. Eleanor’s bra’s off, revealing her pert breasts. She’s drawn the thing sheets of the canopy and sits between the side opening, waiting eagerly for him as her hand skims over the sheets. She looks heavenly, with her hair long and fuzzy and her makeup slightly smudged.

Louis can’t believe his luck.

“You have a nice ass, you know,” Eleanor says off handedly as Louis makes his way back. He scoffs as he stops in front of her, his head shaking.

“You’ve been saying that for days.”

Eleanor shrugs, a playful smirk on her lips, “It’s worth all the attention, trust me.”

Louis gulps as her eyes scan down his body and lands on his bulge. Eleanor’s fingers are soft, yet sure as they go for the band of his briefs, pulling them down and slowly over his cock. Louis lets out a sigh in relief as it bobs up, the tip fuming red. Eleanor hums happily as Louis steps out of his underwear, and her hand comes up to jerk him once, twice.

“Hello there,” she exhales, her eyes wide as she rolls back the foreskin to reveal the head. Louis shakes his head as he chuckles, amazed. She takes the condom out of his hand and rips it open. Louis bites back a moan as Eleanor rolls it onto him.

                The mood shifts, from light and playful to seductive and down right serious. Eleanor pulls Louis down for a searing kiss that has him seeing stars. They fall back onto the bed and without saying anything, both move towards the middle of the bed on their knees. With a lasting, long kiss Eleanor falls back down, her hair fanning out against the pillows. Louis leans over her, kissing down her chest while his hands graze over her sides. He kisses a quick circle around her belly button, and he can feel the laughter billowing from her gut on the tip of her nose.

                “Louis,” she chides softly, her hand petting his hair. Louis nods to himself and leans back on his knees, perched between Eleanor’s legs. She gives him a smile, a go ahead for Louis to take hold of her ankles and pull her body back towards him, her hips elevatored off the bed and on top of his thighs. The upper half of her body is laid out on the bed, her legs loosely hocked around his hips, and she looks perfectly comfortable and content like this. Louis feels the same, the canopy bed shielding them off from everything else.

                It’s just the two of them, and it’s perfect.

                With sweaty palms, Louis takes hold of her hips and watches himself line up in front of her sex. Looks at her face, just make sure there’s no signs for him to stop right now. Eleanor smiles softly at him, and mutely grabs his left hand fleshed against her hips.

                She nods at him, and Louis pushes in slowly.

                “Fuck, El,” Louis exhales. His eyes flutter because she’s just so tight and warm and perfect around him. He feels a huge exhaled breath leave Eleanor’s body as he goes farther inside her. He bites his lips as he takes a moment to get used to being inside her. Louis braces himself, putting one hand on the bed next to her head. He eases his hips until he’s settled all the way inside her.

                Eleanor whimpers, “God you’re thick,” she murmurs, and grips Louis’ red upper arm with her hand, “S-Shit.”

                “You okay?” Louis asks. Eleanor bites her lip as she nods, her eyebrows furrowed.

                “I-I just—gimme a sec, yeah?” Louis nods and drops his head down and pecks at the side of her neck a few times before Eleanor turns her head and kisses him on the lips, soft and heated.

                A couple minutes pass before Eleanor gives him the go ahead to move and Louis does so carefully. He starts out by swiveling his hips, grinding into her shallowly until Eleanor’s is withering and panting out his name. Louis can barely contain himself and feels the tight pull in his gut begin to form but he edges off the feeling as best as he can.

                “You feel amazing,” he whispers in awe against her lips.

                Eleanor scoffs weakly and retorts, “You’re not half bad yourself,” he small giggle is cut off as Louis begins shallowly fucking inside her in small thrusts, “Fuck—Lou. Just like that.”

                Louis pulls out halfway and juts his hips back inside her quickly. He does this repeatedly, until he’s worked up a sweat and is losing his breath a little. He can’t take his eyes off of Eleanor, though. She looks entranced while he fucks her, her gorgeous eyes wide and mouth parted in pleasure and her whole body shaking under him. It’s a sight to behold and makes Louis almost cum.

                “I-I’m close,” Eleanor informs him quickly, “I-Lou, yes—so close Lou. P-Please.”

                Louis grunts as he pulls out the out and rams back inside her in one quick thrusts. Eleanor mewls loudly.

                “F-Fuck!” she pants, “Yes, yes—please Lou.”

                “Wanna see you cum, El,” Louis rasps hotly against her lips as he repeats the same action as before, but going in harder on the thrusts. Eleanor whimpers, her head thrown back in please as a stream of low moans leaves her lips. Louis praises her, “You’re so beautiful when you cum. Bet you’d feel so fucking good on my cock. I wanna feel you cum.”

                “L-Lou,” she whimpers.

                Louis pulls out almost completely, leaving just the tip in before thrusting in her one last time with all his might. It’s then he feels Eleanor tightening harshly around him, sucking the air out of his lungs and making him see stars. He watches in awe as Eleanor’s body arches against his and a high, short cry comes out of her. He feels her body tremble against his, feels her heaving for breath and the searing touch of her skin.

                “Lou, Lou,” Eleanor whines desperately.

                Louis swallows thickly, “I-I’m close El—fuck you feel good.”

                “Fuck me,” Eleanor mumbles lowly, “Whatever—however you want. Just—wanna see you cum, too. I—Lou.”

                At that, Louis wraps his arms around Eleanor back. He moves back on his knees while staying inside her, so that she’s now sitting on his lap and her head on his shoulder right next to his. He holds onto her as he fucks up into her now, sporadic and needy. Eleanor clings tightly onto him and chants his name groggily in his ear. From this new position, Louis’ thighs are killing him, and he’s exhausted but he’s so, so close it’s killing him.

                It’s Eleanor’s moans and her nails digging into his back that pushes him over the edge, his hips sputtering to a stop and his arms clinching around Eleanor as he lets out a serious of low moans. The tightness in his gut unleashes as he spills into the condom. His mind fizzles out, but he can feel Eleanor’s lips against his ear, whispering sweet praises for his ears only as they both catch their breaths.

After a while, they fall back on the bed. Louis pulls the condom off and ties it at the end before throwing it in the waste basket beside the bed. Eleanor’s glued to his side the whole time, humming softly as her finger times glide over his chest. He can’t help but fondly smile down at her, so blissed out and high on ecstasy and possibly more. Neither say anything, and Louis can’t speak for Eleanor, but for him—he doesn’t feel the need to say anything. Maybe Eleanor feels the say way, that everything has always been conveyed in

They decide after some time that they’re not tired still, so Louis orders ice cream sundaes from room service for a very late-night dessert. A couple hours later, Louis’ still awake but barely. Eleanor’s already con to sleep, nuzzled closely in his chest and there’s a tiny smile curled on her lips. He strokes her hair and kisses her scalp and thanks God or the universe for putting Eleanor in his life. Louis drifts off to sleep with a dopy smile on his face and a bittersweet eagerness to see what their last day in paradise will bring them in the morning.

~~~

                Louis wakes up from a slap to his face.

                He grunts in responds.

                “Lou,” Eleanor mumbles thickly, swatting his face weakly again, “Lo, your phones been ringing nonstop for ten minutes. Fucking answer it already.”

                Louis blinks his eyes open, and suddenly hears his cell ringing, “Okay, okay,” he agrees, and sits up to rub his face. He reaches over to the end table and despite still being half asleep, still answers the call on his first try, “ ‘Ello?”

                “Louis! What the fuck man? I tried calling you like fifteen times!”

                Louis frowns as he gets out of bed, not wanting to wake up Eleanor, “Niall?” he asks, “Why are you—”

                “No time for questions, I need to tell you something,” Niall rushes out, “Okay, so you know how Perrie has been bugging your mom, Lots and Flizz?”

                Louis nods, the frown still deep on his tired face, “Yeah…” He nicks his boxer briefs off the ground and struggles briefly to step into them. But he’s pulled them on by the time Niall speaks again.

                “Well they just ignored her, or told her off, so Perrie stopped trying with them,” Niall tells him, but there’s still an edge to his voice that Louis’ doesn’t understand.

                “Okay…but that’s a good thing, yeah?”

                “Lou,” Niall sighs, “I just found out last night that Perrie’s been contacting Daisy and Phoebe.”

                Louis’ stomach twists thickly, “What?!” His twin sisters are too sweet, too forgiving to deny Perrie. They thought of her as another sister and are highly impressionable. But Louis never thought Perrie would go that low.

                “What’s going on?” Eleanor asks from the bed, but Niall goes on.

                “There’s more, Lou.”

                Louis shakes his head, “How the fuck can it get any worse, Ni?”

                Just then, there’s a knock on the door. Louis rolls his eyes as he stomps his way toward the door.

                Niall tells him flatly, “Lou, Perrie begged them to tell her where you are and—”

                Louis knows Niall’s talking to him, can hear him go on and on about something. But Louis can’t hear him, because he’s opened the door already.

                And Perrie is there.

                Louis drops his phone on his foot, but can’t even react to the pain because—

                Holy fucking shit!

                Perrie’s here in Los Cabos.

                And she has the fucking nerve to smile at him, and it’s the same flirty smile she used to give him when they first started dating.

                “Hello, babe!” she greets him, as if the last time Louis saw her she didn’t have another’s man’s dick in her.

                Louis takes a step back, “Perrie, what the Hell are you doing here?”

                Perrie takes this as an invitation to walk into the suite, and Louis has to hold back a growl.

                “Well, you kept ignoring my texts,” she says sweetly, but Louis hears the slight aggression in her voice. She sighs as she looks around the entry way, “So I had to go to extremes to figure out where you are.”

                Louis digs his nails into his palms and grits his teeth, “So you fucking manipulated my teenage sisters into telling you where I am?”

                “I didn’t manipulate them, Lou,” Perrie insists, “Your family loves me.”

                “Not anymore,” Louis mumbles, but Perrie ignores him.

                “Besides, I was desperate! How else are we supposed to fix this unless you actually acknowledge me?”

                Louis scoffs, “Perrie, there’s no way we’re fixing this.” Perrie bats her eyes and has the audacity to draw her finger down the center of his bare chest. Fuck, there’s a still a part of Louis that is under Perrie’s spell, despite everything she’s done to him.

                “How can you possibly say that, Lou? Three weeks ago, you were going to marry me.”

                Louis shakes his head and steps away from Perrie, “That was before I knew you were cheating on me.”

                “That was a mistake,” Perrie agrees too easily for Louis’ liking, “I’m here to make things right.”

                “You can’t make this right Perrie!” Louis says, his head hurting, “Fuck, you—I don’t want anything to do with you! You hurt me too much—”

                “I’m sorry,” Perrie says, and—dammit, she gives him the puppy eyes. Before all this, Louis could never deny her puppy eyes. She wraps her arms around Louis’ neck, trapping him in and making it impossible to leave.

                Louis tries to resists, “P-Per—”

                “I love you, Lou,” Perrie tells him, and she sounds like she’s being honest with him. God Louis can’t think straight, “I want to be with you. We can still make this work.”

                Louis looks into her bright azure eyes, full of hope and sincerity. He can’t think straight. He knows how much pain Perrie has put him through and knows that he’s still dealing with all of it and still trying to accept all of it. But somehow, Louis’ mind wonders off to the future he envisioned with Perrie for years—the house with a large yard, the kids and pets. It’s just…not as easy to say no to all that, to give up on all that. He committed years’ worth of time to her, to their relationship. Louis doesn’t know how to just let that all go in a matter of weeks. He’s finding it hard to give up on Perrie on his own, especially since she’s here in person, seemingly trying to make it all work and give them an earnest go again.

                But he’s not alone.

                “Get out.”

                Louis feels Perrie’s fingers tighten up around his neck at Eleanor’s voice. Louis looks over her head just as Perrie turns around. Eleanor has a stern face, cold and cruel, and is covered up to her neck in the bedsheet.

                Perrie scoffs as she lets Louis go, facing Eleanor.

                “And who are you?” she asks, and Louis cringes at the bite in her tone.

                Eleanor looks her up and down before training her gaze on Louis, “I’m someone who actually gives a damn about Louis unlike you.”

                Louis tries to intervene, not wanting to this to go farther south, “El—”

                “Ah, now I recognize the voice!” Perrie says tauntingly, “You’re the girl in the phone call,” She scoffs, looking over to Louis, “I thought it was all an act but looks like you’ve found someone to keep your dick warm until you came back to me.”

                “Excuse me?!” Eleanor exclaims, trying to make her way to Perrie.

                Louis steps in, holding her by her shoulders, “El, stop—please.”

                “Yeah, El,” Perrie goes on behind Louis, “You really think you know Louis? That Louis even cares at all about you? You’ve known him for not even two weeks! He’s been mine for years.”

                Eleanor retorts, “And look how well you treated him and valued your relationship!”

                “You don’t know shit about us, bitch!” Perrie responds, laughter in her voice, “Sure, Louis told you about the bad stuff, probably just to get in your pants—”

                “Fucking Hell Perrie!” Louis hisses over his shoulder, still trying to keep Eleanor away from Perrie. But his ex doesn’t stop.

                “But I love Louis, I really do, and I don’t need to prove anything to a slut like you.”

                Eleanor growls, “You’re one to talk!”

                “Alright fine,” Perrie muses, “You think you know Louis so well yeah? You think Louis would truly wants you? That he’ll pick you over me—just like that? Then go on Lou, pick this random chick over me. Do it, Lou.”

                Everything suddenly stops and becomes quiet. Louis looks to Eleanor with his heart racing and his mind reeling. It’s too early for this, too much too soon and yet he’s here. He’s here with Eleanor eagerly looking at him with soft, pleading and hopeful eyes. And yet, he can’t say a word. He can’t bring himself to do anything, not even deny Perrie. Slowly, Louis sees the trace of hope drain from Eleanor’s eyes and she eventually backs away from him.

                “El,” he reaches out to her. But Eleanor shakes her head.

                “Fuck you, Louis.” She walks past Louis quickly and by the time Louis realizes what he has done, Eleanor’s already gone.

                Perrie’s comment, “She really thought you two had something else going on, hm?”

                And that—that’s the last straw.

                Louis spins around, fuming at his former lover.

                “You really think I would take you back?” he says lowly and feels slightly good at seeing the damn smirk drop from Perrie’s lips.

                “Lou?” she responds and pulls on a flirty smile as she goes for his hands, “Babe, c’mon.”

                “You really are a piece of work, Per,” Louis says, shaking his head, “You really must think I’m a fucking idiot to even believe for a second we had a chance after all this shit you’ve put me through.”

                Perrie sighs, “Zayn and I are done—”

                “And even if I believed that for a second,” Louis sneers, getting up in her space, “I still wouldn’t take you back. I’m worth more then what you’ve put me through Perrie! I deserve someone who actually loves me.” Perrie scoffs.

                “So, she’s the one then? That—woman is the one that deserves you?”

                Louis shrugs, answering truthfully, “I have no fucking clue, Perrie. But I know that Eleanor treated me better in two weeks then you did for most of our relationship. And she has showed me I’m worth more than you and your twisted ideas of a relationship.”

                “I love you,” Perrie tries weakly, and Louis can’t help but let out a stiff chuckle.

                “Your fucked-up mind thinks you love me, when you just love the idea of someone fawning over you and being the center of attention. That’s not love—not even close!”

                Perrie shakes her head stubbornly, and again tries to reach out to him, “Babe—”

                “If you do not get out of my room in the next two minutes, I’m calling security to escort you out,” Louis informs her flatly.

                Perrie sighs, “You don’t have to act like this Lou. We can work this out still. I love you, I want you—”

                “Well I don’t want anything to do with you, Perrie!” Louis yells, “I don’t want a damn thing from you! You’ve wasted so much of my time, energy and my heart for far too long! I’m not a fool, Per—I‘m not going to give another minute of my life wasting it on you, let alone another chance! I don’t give a fuck if you accept this today or tomorrow or months from now, but I am done with you Perrie! You’ve hurt me beyond repair and I could never, ever love you again! I’m so fucking done with you Perrie! And if you had any ounce of respect for me you’d walk out that door right now and never reach out to me or my family ever again!”

                Louis heaves for air as he finishes speaking. Perrie had been so cocky just moments before, but now she has her arms wrapped around herself and her gaze off to the side. It’s silent for a painful minute before Perrie speaks up.

                “So that’s it then?” she asks, “I came all this way for nothing?”

                And a weight that had been on Louis’ chest for weeks seems to have evaporated in a matter of seconds.

                “Yeah,” Louis tells her simply, brutally, “Yeah you did.”

                Perrie nods to herself before looking up at Louis. She wipes off a mascara filled tear off her cheek.

                “I did love you, Louis,” she tells him honestly, “I really did love you. And I still do.”

                Louis sighs, deciding not to drag this on longer then it has been going, because it’s not fair to her and it’s sure as Hell not fair to him.

“Goodbye Perrie.”

                Perrie sniffles as she gives him one last look before nodding at him and turning around to walk out the door. Louis closes it instantly and locks it. He feels slightly sick, but also so fucking amazing at the same time. It’s weird to say the least. Because it didn’t happen in the way that Louis wanted it to, and was way too dramatic and messy. But he has this feeling that the book has finally closed on him and Perrie, that everything’s officially over between them.

                But no, Louis knows he’s fucked it up with Eleanor and has no clue where things lie with her.

                Louis spots her clothes from the night before beside the bed and picks them up. He sees her cellphone on the nightstand where his was before Niall called him and takes it as well. He feels sick as he walks down the hall to Eleanor’s room, his mind spinning to come up with some sort of worthy apology for Eleanor.

                When he gets to her room, the door is already open slightly.

                Louis pushes it open, and all the air in his lungs disappear.

                Eleanor’s suitcases are on her bed, and she’s packing up the few items she’s taken out of them.

                No, no, no, no.

                “El?” Louis says softly. At the sound of his voice Eleanor’s hands freeze and she looks up at him, sternly looking at him with a force that makes Louis’ shiver. He weakly goes on, timidly reaching out towards her, “I, um—I brought you your clothes.”

                Eleanor blinks at him, before taking her clothes and muttering a hollow, “Thanks.”

                Louis bites his lip as Eleanor goes back to packing, carelessly shoving her belongings angrily.

                “I um,” Louis lamely tries, “I told Perrie off. She’s gone, for good that is.”

                “That’s great Lou,” Eleanor mumbles. Louis purses his lips.

                “Why are you packing?” he asks dumbly, “We still have one more day left.”

                A bitter scoff leaves Eleanor’s lips and she picks up her head to see him, “You really think I’m staying after that shitshow? After all the terrible things that—that bitch said about me while you stood there without defending me?”

                Louis swallows thickly and closes his eyes, “Els—”

                “Just email me the pictures you took, okay?” Eleanor tells him, as she zips up an outer pocket for her suitcase, “Look up my blog, my contact info will be there.”

                “El,” Louis says thickly, his head shaking, “Lets just talk about this, please—”

                “No, Lou. I get it, you two have history but that doesn’t give you the right to just let your ex say that shit. I was embarrassed and hurt!”

                “I swear to God I didn’t know she was coming El!” Louis tells to explain, “That’s why Niall was blowing up my phone to warn me about it! And I’m sorry for not defending you, but I was just trying to keep the peace.”

                Eleanor shakes her head, “I have a plane to chase in two hours, I need to finish packing.”

                “Just stop packing El!” Louis tries but Eleanor walks off into the bathroom. Louis sighs as he waits for her to come back, and when she does, stomping angrily into the room, Louis goes on, “SO that’s just it, uh? After all that, this is how it’s gonna end? You’re just going to take off?”

                “Yeah, I am!” Eleanor retorts bitterly and Louis scoffs, feeling his own blood boil.

“Well that’s just who you are, right El? Always must have your bags half packed and ready to go at all times so you can escape when anything real threatens your paradise,” Louis responds bitterly.

Eleanor scoffs, shaking her head, “Yeah? I’m a runaway, hm? Well at least it’s better than staying in cement like you, in a dead-end job doing something you don’t love to do. You stick to a routine Louis! You stick to what you know and what you can expect and what you know is safe! We—we had something going, something really fucking good! But you’re too scared to take the leap of faith.”

“I’m not fucking scared, El!” Louis insists, “I just—fuck this happened all so quickly. I just need more time.”

                Eleanor laughs at that, actually laughs.

                “So you needed your ex to help you figure that all out?” she replies.

                Louis sighs deeply, “El I swear to God. I had no fucking clue she was coming here until seconds before Perrie knocked on my door! I just—I needed a second—”

                “Bullshit,” Eleanor barks back, “You hesitated, you fucking hesitated after you told me for days how amazing and special I was,” she scoffs again, and Louis just wishes she would stop doing that, “I can’t believe I fell for your lines.”

                “El,” Louis sighs.

                “What Lou? You wanted a good fuck to forget about the wedding that fell through? Or some girl to keep you company on your failed honeymoon?”

                “Jesus,” Louis huffs, “El, you—I never thought of you like that! How can you think so low of me?”

                “Well I don’t know you as well as I thought I knew you—”

                “Then why did you do all this?!” Louis yells, and suddenly the room is painfully quiet, “Why did you insist on taking me on all these adventures? Why did you do that? I was perfectly fine with coming out here alone and maybe just staying out on the beach. But you—you just fucking came out of nowhere and gave me more than I could have ever asked for and I just—why? Why did you do that?”

                “Because I—” Eleanor begins, but stops short to take in a few breaths. She glares at Louis earnestly, “Because I saw you and instantly I was attracted to you.”

                Louis blinks, his heartrate picking up, “What?”

                “I liked you, from the first second I saw you,” Eleanor declares and it just—it utterly stuns Louis, “I looked at you and I just thought—I had this good feeling about you, Lou. I don’t know how but I just did. And I chased after that feeling because I wanted it, Lou. I wanted you. It’s like the same thrill I feel every time I explore something new, Louis! I always chase after that feeling, so I chased after you.”

                “I don’t—” Louis begins, but he can’t seem to complete a though.

                “And I,” Eleanor sighs, her eyebrows furrowed and her lip in her teeth, “I just thought—I dunno what I thought! I just knew I wanted you.”

                “And now you don’t?” Louis asks sternly.

                Eleanor just looks at him with wide eyes before she shakes her head, “Lou—”

                “You asking me to take a leap of faith is so fucking ironic,” he spits out, “You’re always on the go, a drifter—never ready to settle down because you think there’s always going to be a better adventure out there. You’ll never be satisfied, El—never, because you’ll always be itching to leave, even if you have something good.”

                Eleanor just breathes slowly, fuming mutely.

                Louis goes on.

                “How could I possibly take a leap of faith on that, El?!” he declares, “How can I take a chance on someone who’s there for me one minute, but then flees the next because it’s too hard? How can you ask me to take a leap of faith on a person who’s ready to leave in a moment’s notice?”

                “Fuck you,” she sneers, and Louis feels incredibly guilty at seeing her tears, “If you knew this was all doomed from the start then why didn’t you just back out? Why’d you have to drag me along? If that’s how you really see me Louis, then why did you let this go as far as it did? Why did you set up that date last night and gave me this fucking necklace?!”  

                And well, Louis doesn’t have a good answer for that.

                Or rather, he does have a good answer for that.

                But Louis can’t tell her, not after everything he’s said to her.

                It wouldn’t be fair to her, and she wouldn’t feel the same way. It wouldn’t stop her from leaving.

                Eleanor wouldn’t stay, wouldn’t settle down, not for him at least.

                “El,” he exhales, because that all Louis can say.

                But Eleanor shakes her head as she zips up her suitcase. Louis watches as she moves about the room angrily, stuffing things into her backpack in silence. He stands awkwardly off to the side, a million things on the tip of his tongue but he can’t bring himself to say a single thing. A sniffle comes from Eleanor once she hoists her backpack on her shoulder and it kills Louis. He did that to her, the path of tears lined on her face is his fault. He wants to reach out to hold her, to stop her, to beg her to stay but Louis can’t, just can’t.

                Eleanor walks past him with her rolling suitcases in each hand and her backpack slung on her shoulder. She stops briefly in front of Louis, at glares at him with her red stained eyes.

                “I was going to ask you to come with me,” she tells him flatly, and the knife already in his gut twists sharply. She adds on, “I wanted you to come with me, Lou.”

                All Louis can say is, “I’m sorry Els. I’m so sorry.”

                A weary scoff is the only response he gets, and a reminder, “Just email me the pictures.”

                And just like that, Eleanor’s roughly tugging on her suitcases out of her hotel room.

                Louis stands in the discarded room, shell shocked by everything that’s happened so quickly. Eventually a maid comes in to clean up the room, and Louis reluctantly leaves. He thinks about going after her, of running for her in a crowded airport. But he knows that Eleanor doesn’t want that, doesn’t want him. And Louis doesn’t blame her at all.

                He spends the rest of his day hauled up in his room, on the bed that’s too big for one person. The pillows still have a faint scent of Eleanor’s perfume and Louis smothers his face into it, unable to get enough of it. If he cries, he hates himself for it, for feeling so sorry for himself because he knows he fucked up everything. Now Eleanor’s off to go back home and will leave on her next trip soon and she’ll never think about Louis ever again.

                This is why he doesn’t rush into things, Louis thinks bitterly before he drifts off to sleep.

                He wakes up early, way too early, but his flight leaves at eleven so he decides to pack up everything and just get it over with. He checks out of the beautiful Mexican resort a few hours later and feels detached when he goes through airport security a little while later. He boards the plane and doesn’t dare look at any of the other passengers. He plugs in his earbuds and breathes a silent thank you to God once the plane takes off.

                The paradise Louis’ been living in for the last week and a half is officially over.


	5. Chapter Five

*Two months later*

                The numbers on the spreadsheet blur together for the sixth time in the last hour.

                Louis blinks slowly a few times and fails to focus them back on the numbers. He looks over at the clock on his desk.

                11:51 am—that’s close enough to lunch time.

                Ten minutes later, Louis and Niall are sat in the courtyard outside of the office building. Niall works as a paralegal for a law firm on another floor. Most of the time Niall’s out of the office during lunch, usually hauled up in court for a case. But Niall happens to be the office today and is just as eager to escape his desk as Louis is. It’s the same spot, right where they’re sitting on the cement benches. where Louis met Niall seven years prior during the same lunch break.

                The realization makes Louis stop midbite of his sandwich.

                Has it really been seven years already? Has Louis really spent the majority of the last seven years of his life at a desk staring at numbers?

                Louis’ not so hungry anymore.

                When Niall is rambling on about filing and documenting evidence for a case he’s on, Louis secretly pulls out his phone. He’s uploaded all the pictures from Los Cabos and put them on his cloud devise, so he could show his vacation pictures to his friends and coworkers. Or rather, that’s what Louis tells himself, but really—it’s just so he can look at the pictures he took of Eleanor regardless of where he is.

                It feels like a lifetime ago since Los Cabos. His tan has faded out to where it’s almost not there anymore. The excitement of coming back from Los Cabos and the curious questions regarding his trip from his coworkers and friends has died down. He’s shipped the souvenirs he got in Los Cabos to his family in California ages ago, and his mom and sisters all love their gifts. Louis can’t exactly recall what Eleanor smells like anymore and can’t remember the way her hands felt on his skin either.

                But thank God for his pictures.

                Louis wouldn’t have made it through the last few weeks without them.

                Louis loves every single picture he took of Eleanor, especially the ones where she’s smiling. But some of his favorite pictures are the ones he caught Eleanor off guard. The ones where she’s looking away from the camera or moving between poses or smiling to the ground as she fixes her hair. She’s not even trying at all, and yet she’s simply stunning.

                “You need to stop doing that do yourself,” Niall says suddenly, his stern voice cutting through Louis.

                “I can’t,” Louis mumbles pathetically. Niall sighs.

                “Dude, why can’t you accept the fact that you love her already?”

                Louis insists, “I have, Ni. I—There was probably always some part of me that loved Eleanor. It just—over time that part grew more and more.”

                “Then go after her, Lou!” Niall berates him, giving Louis an aggressive shove, “Stop telling me this shit and go tell Eleanor!”

                He shakes his head, “Ni—”

                “No Lou, I know what you’re gonna say,” Niall insists, mimicking his friend, “’ _It’s too soon, Ni!’_ And no, it’s not Lou! You’re allowed to have these feelings for another woman, Lou! You deserve love, man—like actual love and not the shit Perrie was giving you for years.”

                Louis blinks at him, “Wait—you knew Perrie wasn’t right for me?” Niall shrugs at that.

                “Not necessarily. I just—you were a different person around her, Lou. You were always on her beck and call for most of the time you were together. You were bending over so far backwards to make her happy, to impressive her friends and family—it was just painful seeing you not being comfortable around Perrie, Lou. I was okay with keeping my lips sealed for the rest of my life, because you were so convinced you were happy with her, I couldn’t hurt you like that man.”

A painful weight settles on Louis chest as he thinks back on his time with Perrie. It was nothing like what he had with Eleanor, not easy going and carefree. Sure Louis toned down his sarcasm because Perrie found it annoying and he dressed a little bit more preppy then he would have liked because she liked that style. But, isn’t that what relationships are about? Making sacrifices? Louis frowns.

 “And when you started taking more photography jobs,” Niall goes on, “You worked your ass off to make sure she had everything she wanted for the wedding. But Perrie didn’t see it that way, all she saw was that she didn’t have all of your attention. So she found someone else who could give her attention.”

Louis swallows thickly.

“But Lou,” Niall sighs, “It took you almost a year for you to realize you might be in love with Perrie. Yet it only took Eleanor a week for you to fall in love with her.”

“That’s too quick, Ni,” Louis laments again, sounding weaker.

Niall shakes his head, “You know when you know, Lou—or at least that’s what they all say. You’re in love with Eleanor, and I think she’s a fit for you.”

“You don’t know her,” Louis chides. Niall remains quiet, and Louis stares at him, “What? You know Eleanor?”

“Not personally,” Niall insists, “But like—I’ve read her blogs Lou, and—she seems funny and outgoing and fun. She’s more of the kind of girl I’d picture you settling down with.”

Louis purses his lips, “But, that’s the thing, Ni. El has this amazing life, going all over the world and exploring all these places—why would she want to settle with me? Why would she be okay with staying put in Boston with just me?”

“Okay, so many things fucked up in that sentence, just—wow,” Niall rolls his eyes, “First off, get through your thick head that you’re a fantastic man, Lou! You’re funny, loyal and you have one of the biggest hearts I’ve seen. So don’t you fucking dare talk yourself down in front of me ever again, got it? Eleanor, or any other woman would be lucky to have you.”

Louis smirks wistfully as he nods.

Niall’s truly the best.

“Secondly, have you ever even asked what Eleanor wants?” Niall asks and well fuck.

“Um,” Louis begins, “No?”

“Jesus, Louis!” Niall grumbles, throwing his hands in the air, “Then how the fuck do you know that Eleanor doesn’t want you?”

Louis shrugs lamely, “Well, she said so herself he loves traveling! And I can’t—I won’t ask her to give that up for me.”

“Oh my fucking GOD Lou,” Niall groans annoyingly, “This is seriously some middle school shit. Be a grown man and realize that she can have both. She can travel the world and still be in a relationship with you! Or better yet, you can go on some of these trips with her!”

Louis looks at the ground, finding it more interesting then being scolded by Niall. He makes the stupid choice to bite his lip, and Niall, that dick, notices it.

“What aren’t you telling me?” he demands more then asks Louis. The question deflates Louis.

“I, um,” he sighs, feeling a headache billowing at the front of his skull. He closes his eyes because he can’t, just can’t look at him, “After we fought in Los Cabos, because she left, El—she um, she told me she was…going to ask me to come with her.”

Niall smacks him on the back of his head.

“Ow!” Louis groans.

“You fucking idiot!” Niall tells him, “That should tell you right there Eleanor’s just as gone for you as you are for her!”

But Louis shakes his head, “No Niall—that was before we fought. I—I said terrible things about her.”

“And she said shitty things about you, too,” Niall points out, “But they’re not unforgiveable things, Lou. And that certainly doesn’t mean you’ve blown it with El.”

“Ni—”

“Just,” Niall’s tone suddenly chances, going form annoyed to soft in seconds flat. He pats Louis on the back, “I know why you are the way you are, Lou.”

Louis gulps thickly, “Don’t Ni.”

“I won’t, Lou,” he assures him, “But Lou—you can’t live your life so scared at what’s around the corner, of what you don’t know or can expect. That’s no way to live. You went to Los Cabos after experiencing the worst thing that ever happened to you, and you had a fucking amazing time! You thought it would be horrible, and you did so many things in a little over a week then most people do in a month Lou! You met a wonderful person who take you on all these amazing little adventures. And you fell in love hard for her within days Louis, and you can’t sit there and tell me that you taking a risk wasn’t worth it.

“Sometimes you plan everything out, have your ducks in a row and shitty things can still happen Lou—you should know that more than anyone. And I won’t tell you that if you take risks you’ll get everything you’ll ever want, because that’s not true either. But Lou—you gotta at least try. You have to reach out to her and see if you two and work something out. I know you feel safe in your comfort zone but you’re not going to have a chance at true happiness unless you at least try to talk to her.”

After thinking about it for a second, Louis can’t think of anything to say, can’t hardly think.

Niall’s phone goes off in his coat pocket. Niall pulls it out, curses as he looks down at it.

“Look, I gotta take this,” Niall tells him. He gives Louis a pitied look, “Lou, just—go read her post on Los Cabos at least. I think you should see what Eleanor really thinks about your time in Los Cabos.”

Louis’ eyes widen with interest, his chest twist in his gut. He wants to ask Niall what he means by that, what the fuck he’s talking about. But Niall’s off, already talking on his phone as he walks back towards the building. His mind works over his friend’s advice, but Louis can’t bring himself to look. Instead, he wants a small group of ants slowly attack what’s left of his sandwich for another twenty of minutes.

He wants to look over the pictures of Eleanor, but Louis does his best to quell that desire.

He has to get used to not having Eleanor.

This isn’t paradise anymore.

~~~

                The nights still haunt Louis, but in a different way.

                For weeks, memories of Perrie would flood his mind, and his fingers would itch for his phone to text her.

                But it’s been months since Louis’ thought about Perrie.

                Mainly because all he can think of is Eleanor.

                To combat this, Louis gets on a health get. He’s taken up nightly runs around Boston, going down towards the water and through the cobblestone streets in the historic district. It’s painfully running on the uneven surface, but he winces through it. It’s funny, because the historic district is the kind of place Louis imagines Eleanor would love, as it has so many corners to explore and there’s always something to seek out.

                Louis thinks about this every single time he runs through the historic district.

                Maybe it’s the cobblestone that’s so painful for him.

                That night after he finishes his jog, he showers and munches on dry cereal for dinner. The night is still young, so Louis passes time by editing pictures of an anniversary party he took photos for over the weekend. Louis smiles at the happy older local couple, who have spent fifty years togethers. He envies them terribly. He finishes off the editing for all the photos and emails them to the couple’s oldest son who hired Louis for the job.

                A Red Sox game is the only thing that seems slightly entertaining on TV. Louis’ not much of a fan for the sport but watches it while eating handfuls of dry cereal. There is a stream of constant thoughts in the back of his head that mainly consist of this theme:

                _‘Is this really my life?’_

Over the last two mouths since coming back, that’s all Louis can think about.

                Most of the time, he can ignore these nagging thoughts.

                But tonight, tonight they seem too loud, and he can’t ignore them.

                Louis caves.

                He reaches for his phone and pulls up his Instagram app. Before he can back out, Louis’ already typing out Eleanor’s name in the search bar. She’s not the first option that pops up, but she’s one of the top five accounts. Louis recognizes it’s her because—because her profile picture is a picture Louis took. It’s one of the ones he took of Eleanor on the beach the day they went snorkeling.

                “Fuck,” Louis exhales and clicks on her account.

                Louis’ eyes widen at just how popular her account is, with nearly one-point-five million followers. Eleanor deserves every single one of them, Louis thinks. He scrolls down until he spots a picture of Los Cabos. It’s the arch, their arch Louis thinks, that Eleanor posted just last week. He reads the caption with his lips ajar.

                _‘I miss you so much x #loscabos’_

Louis’ sure his heart stopped beating. Sure, she could mean Los Cabos, and most of her followers probably think that’s what she means. But—but there’s a selfish part of Louis that thinks the post was meant for him.

                A few rows down, he spots ten or so pictures of he’s taken of Los Cabos. True to her word, Eleanor’s linked his professional photography account on each photo. When he emailed the pictures to her along with his website and social media accounts, Eleanor promised him he would give him credit for the pictures, as she did when they set up this arrangement. But she didn’t have to, not after how every ended. Yet she did, and that—Louis is yet in awe of her once again.

                The pictures vary, with several of them being pictures of her on the beach. But then Eleanor’s posted one from their snorkeling adventure, a picture of a whale Louis took on the boat while Eleanor was seasick, and one ATV riding. The captions differ from picture to picture, all of them dating back to two months ago, and they all look gorgeous. Louis surprised by this, because he though he took these pictures, he was so torn up over how his trip ended that he barely could edit the pictures. So to see how truly amazing they all turned out is incredible and he can’t help but feel both proud and a little bashful when he sees how many likes his pictures are getting.

                Louis stalks around the rest of her Instagram and sees a few pictures from another trip she took to Victoria, Canada and then some place in Kentucky. He notices a difference in quality of the pictures, and Louis feels almost guilty he wasn’t there to take pictures for her, of her.

                He scrolls back up to the top of her account and stops when he sees the last picture she posted, which happened to be only a few hours ago. Louis clicks on it, feeling his heart racing at what he sees. It’s a basic selfie of Eleanor, of her lounging on what looks like a bed in pajamas. But—but resting on her chest is the necklace Louis gave her. He doesn’t know how to feel really. He feels happy, no elated to see her wearing it, yet also terribly confused. Why would Eleanor wear it if she hates him?

                The caption reads, _‘Much needed #R &R! Kentucky you were wonderful as always, but I’m looking forward to this next week off back home. New blog post will be up tomorrow! Off to another adventure soon! Xx _

Okay, so.

                Eleanor’s back in New York.

                That’s only around a four-hour car ride from Boston.

                No.

                Louis can’t think like that. That’s just, not rational at all.

                He turns off his phone and attempts to go to bed early.

                But he barely sleeps at all, an urgent restlessness inside of Louis keeps him up all night.

~~~

                It’s another slow day at work. The thing is, there’s plenty for Louis to do, as it’s almost the end of another quarter and he has to sort out the company’s spending report for the third quarter. But he can’t be bothered to do it. He knows he’s behind, so incredibly behind in his work that will take days to catch up. But watching the rain slide down the window in Louis’ office is way more interesting to him.

                There’s somehow half a day left of work.

                Ugh.

                That itch from the night before still hasn’t left Louis alone. If anything, the desire to check out Eleanor’s blog is stronger then ever before. And truth be told, he’s not really sure why he hasn’t looked up her post on Los Cabos yet. Perhaps it’s because it’s still painful to see her at a distance, or maybe he’s scared of the spiteful things she has to say about the trip or of him. Realistically, Eleanor wouldn’t use her blog as a means to vent her personal life—she’s much too professional for that.

                Regardless, it’s Louis’ own anxieties that have kept him far away from Eleanor’s blog.

                But.

                But a surge of confidence, curiosity and boredom take over Louis, and on a whim he finds himself looking up Eleanor’s blog on his work computer.

                He finds it easily, and just based off the homepage alone, Louis’ biting back a smile. The layout and graphics are so catered to her, with the name of the blog ‘Travel with E’ writing in blog cursive font in black lettering. There’s a neutral color scheme to the blog, featuring mainly black, white and grey with the pops of color coming from her photographs. There’s a picture of Eleanor off to the right side of the page under the ‘About Me’ section. Louis guesses it’s an older picture because Eleanor’s hair is dyed lighter in the photo at the ends then it was when she was in Los Cabos. He reads her bio, enamored by the way she describes herself accurately in just a few words, and she finishes by saying: _This world has a lot of great places—let me show you!_

                Louis can’t help but smile.

                He spots the link to her Los Cabos post, and overs the mouse over it for a moment before clicking on it. The title of the post is the first thing he notices on the page, with large thick letters that stare right back at him: Los Cabos and the Adventure of a Lifetime. Louis swears he feels his heart bursting in the most painful way imaginable. He reads the blog, it begins with her seamlessly advertising the resort, saying it was like an oasis and a vital part of the trip. Louis can just imagine how happy Santiago must have been when he read that.

                Eleanor writes on about her adventures in Los Cabos in chronological order, starting with their ziplining tip. Louis smirks at the picture of her in a helmet and a harness, and just by reading Eleanor’s detailed account of it, Louis feels like he’s there again. It’s bittersweet. The post goes on, and Eleanor talks about snorkeling and swimming with the fish, going whale watching, riding AVTs in the desert, the yacht, the various watersports and going shopping. There’s a post for each activity, along with other scenic shots Louis took on the beach or the ocean.

Louis has never been so envious of his past self before.

                He just wants to go back so badly, to relive these adventures and to fix everything that had gone wrong.

                The post ends in a way that leaves Louis speechless. Eleanor breaks the chronological narrative form she had for the whole post and finishes off by writing about the Arch of Cabos San Lucas. Seeing a picture of the arch causes the heart coil. Louis thinks Eleanor chose to end the blog post this way because there’s no way in Hell she would ever reveal how her last day in Los Cabos conspired. But it’s how she describes the arch is more painful than seeing the picture of it. She writes the arch as. ‘a sentinel, protecting the beach shore and all those who inhabit it.’

She writes on, and Louis’ eyes sting because he can’t bring himself to blink.

_‘The arch is this all-powerful force of nature that demands respect and attention. But it’s more than just a rock formation in the ocean—it’s a hideaway in plain sight. The arch is also referred to as Lover’s Arch, as many couples frequent the rough waters just to kiss under the arch on the beach. It’s romantic, to kiss the person who means the most to you against the rock, concealed from the rest of the world. It’s an experience I hope you all get to have one day.’_

Louis digs his nails into his palm. Eleanor doesn’t outright say she kissed anyone under that arch, but she flirts with the notion that she has.

Eleanor finishes the post with a few paragraphs that resonate with Louis.

_‘Los Cabos was a trip I wasn’t expecting at all. I’ve been traveling for years and I’ve been to Mexico before—I had an idea of what this trip was going to be like. And yet, that’s the beauty of going to a new place you’ve never been before—it humbles you. Life and the world tends to do that, takes everything you think you know is to be true or is to come and gives you something you never thought would happen, good or bad._

_‘I’m happy to report that Los Cabos humbled me in the best way possible. This trip was more than just a few activities—it was about the whole experience. I learned things in Los Cabos I didn’t think I needed to know, I saw things I’ve seen thousands of times before with fresh eyes. And most importantly, I felt things in Los Cabos that I’ve never felt in any other place in the whole wide world. I can’t tell you what that feeling was, or who was responsible for those feelings._

_‘But somewhere between the warm ocean, the hot beaches and all the little adventures, I found myself changing. I was like that rock formation for so long, beautiful yet daunting at a distance. But I had to dive into the ocean and swim to secret cove under the arch to discover new little treasures about myself, to feel things I used to only dream of ever feeling of before. There’s so much more to us then just our shells, we have so much more to explore and feel then whatever we’re used to. I’ve been stuck for so long, wondering aimlessly all over this world in search for something._

_‘I found that sort of something I’ve always wanted in Los Cabos.’_

_‘It’s safe to say I’ll never forget about Los Cabos. It’ll always have a little piece of me._

_-E.’_

Louis slumps back in his chair, feeling winded as though he’s ran a marathon. He can’t think clearly at all, all the words, and sentences and paragraphs blending together in his mind. He’s conflicted. He can’t just act normal after reading that. He can’t look at anymore numbers and try to sort out his company’s shit when he can’t do the same with his own personal life. At the same time, Louis just can’t get up and storm out of here to chase Eleanor down. No that’s—that’s just not practical, not realistic at all. Maybe she didn’t mean those things, maybe Eleanor was just writing it up for her readers.

But it’s that sentence that Louis keeps playing over and over in his head, the one that leaves him dizzy and his heart racing.

_‘I found that sort of something I’ve always wanted in Los Cabos.’_

Suddenly, Louis’ on his feet.

He shoves all his belongings into his briefcase, every personal item he’s collected on his desk for seven years goes into the briefcase. Anything small, like calculators and pencils and paperclips—he doesn’t bother with those. Louis leaves the spread sheets on the desk and goes to his boss’ office. He walks in and thankfully, his boss isn’t doing anything at the time Louis comes in.

“Louis,” his boss smiles warmly at him, “How can I—”

“I quit,” Louis tells him bluntly, his mind racing. His boss opens his mouth to speak but Louis goes on, “Thanks for the opportunity and for this job but I—I don’t belong here anymore.”

With that, Louis’ strolling out of his office as fast as he can. In the elevator, he hits the floor Niall works on, just a few below where he works (or where Louis used to work). Niall happens to be out in the hallway on a business call when the elevator opens up. He sees Louis, frowns at his friend’s excited eyes and quickly ends the call.

“I just quit, Ni,” he tells him. Niall’s eyes widen but then Louis tells him, “I’m going after her.”

A soft smile spreads over Niall’s face, “You read her blog post?” Louis nods enthusiastically and All he says to Louis is, “Good luck man.”

Once he’s out of the building, Louis pauses because—he doesn’t know where Eleanor lives in New York. For a second, all of his previous actions seem for wasted.

But one person who knows both him and Eleanor that might be able to help him.

“Louis!” Harry all but shouts when he answer’s Louis’ phone call. Louis’ heading straight towards the parking lot and is barely holding himself back from running. Harry goes on, “I’ve missed you so much! How are you do—”

“Harry,” Louis says, sounding gruff, “I-I need Eleanor’s address.”

A long pause comes from Harry, and then Louis has the pull the phone away because Harry is shouting in his ear.

“I knew it! I knew it!” Harry beams.

Louis rolls his eyes, “Oh really?”

“Well I knew something was going between you two in Los Cabos, and then something bad happened and. I fucking told Eleanor not to give up hope, that you’d come around—”

“Wait,” Louis exhales, “El—she’s talked about me to you?”

Harry sighs, “Of course, Louis! She misses you so much.”

Louis can’t breathe.

“I need her address Harry.”

“Good thing I thought to send El a thank you card in the mail and asked for her address months ago,” he boasts, “I’ll text you it. And don’t fuck it up this time!”

“I won’t,” Louis promises and ends the call.

He gets inside his car, loosens his tie slightly and takes off.

~~~

                Hours later, Louis’ still sorta in shock he’s standing in front of Eleanor’s door.

                He knows he shouldn’t be. Louis was there for all of the four hours it took him to drive to New York. But still, it’s just so surreal. It’s definitely not where Louis thought his day would end up when he woke this morning.

                The white, unassuming white door with gold numbers is scary.

                But Louis’ never felt surer of anything before.

                He knocks on it and tries to brace himself as he waits for Eleanor. Louis’ heartbeat picks up as he hears her footsteps behind the door coming closer and closer. The door handle jiggles and Louis’ holding his breath when it opens up.

Louis looks up at her and—and it’s like he’s been in the dark for so long and he’s seeing the sun again. The first thing he notices is Eleanor’s eyes, earnest in surprise and just as beautiful as Louis remembers. Her hair’s in a messy high bun and she’s wearing black leggings and a long sleeve grey shirt that hangs off one of her shoulders. Louis smiles at the stunned ‘O’ shape on her lips. It takes everything within Louis not to kiss Eleanor right there because she’s just so beautiful and he’s missed her so much.

“Hi,” Louis exhales at the same times as Eleanor blurts out.

“You’re not Chinese takeout.”

Louis pauses, “Uh.”

“Oh my God,” Eleanor sighs, shaking her head, “God, I’m a fucking idiot. I just—holy shit.”

Eleanor reaches her hand out and gently cups Louis’ cheek. She smiles dopily up at him, and Louis has no doubt that he has the same expression on his face. Her hand feels warm against his cheek and God, Louis’ missed this so much.

“It’s really you,” she breathes out, her eyes bright.

Louis nods, feeling weak, “Two months late, but I finally came to my senses.”

“I always had faith we’d find our way back to each other,” Eleanor’s lips curl up in a brief smile and Louis’ heart is racing, “Come in. We need to talk.”  

It’s everything Louis expected Eleanor’s apartment would look like. The walls are white and the large sectional couch against the right wall is light grey and there are deep brown hardwood floors throughout. But there are pops of colors all over the place in the form of picture frames on the walls and small tokens on the bookshelf. On the wall behind the couch there’s a large map of the world with hundreds of pushpins that must reflect where Eleanor has been. Louis smiles at the small yellow pushpin that’s in Los Cabos. The kitchen and small dining area are to the left as Louis walks in, with a hallway that must have Eleanor’s bedroom and a bathroom. There’s a huge window at the far wall that looks out of the busy New York street, and the city illuminates against the dusk sky.

There are just too many things for Louis’ eyes to look at as far as souvenirs from Eleanor’s trips, as they seem to take up any space of the end tables on either side of the couch, the coffee table in the center of the room and in the bookshelf. But still, everything is very organized somehow and clean, cleaner then Louis’ place for sure.

“I love your place,” Louis tells her sincerely. A slight rosy glow creeps up Eleanor’s cheeks.

“Thanks,” she says, “Um, sit down please.”

Louis nods quickly and sits on the edge of the cushion. Eleanor does the same, but sits on the opposite side of the couch. He sighs has he nervously taps his fingers on his legs, “I'm sorry for just showing up out of the blue like this. I should've called, it was rude me not to.”

“You’re not being rude,” Eleanor insists softly, “And—please believe me when I say I’m so happy to see you, Lou--like, really fucking happy.”

“You shouldn’t be,” Louis grumbles, “Not after what I said to you.”

“Oh Lou.” Eleanor sighs. There’s a cushion of space between them, and both of them choose to remain still, to keep the distance for now.

“I’m sorry, El,” Louis apologizes honestly, “I—I shouldn’t have said those things about you. I didn’t mean any of it. The truth is, I admire the Hell out of you Eleanor. You do whatever you want, go wherever you want to go and get to explore all these cool places. I wish I was more like you, more carefree and determined. I should’ve told you all this, how amazing I really think you are instead of saying all that shit to you.”

Eleanor flashes a grin, looking shy.

Louis goes on, “And I shouldn’t have let Perrie said those things to you. That—that was just awful, and I should’ve stood up for you, because like I said I think you’re fucking wonderful. I should’ve defended you back that and I kick myself every day for not sticking up for you.”

“It’s okay, Lou,” Eleanor insists, “You can’t—you shouldn’t take the blame for what your ex said. That’s not your fault.”

Louis shakes his head, “But what I said to you—”

“Louis,” Eleanor cuts him off. She glances away and closes her eyes as she sighs. Louis wants more than anything to reach out to her, to make that worried expression go away. But he’s unsure if can do that, if Eleanor would want that.

Eleanor hugs herself and looks back at him. She gives Louis a weary smile as she tells him.

“You weren’t exactly wrong,” she says, “I’m a runaway.”

Louis gulps, “El, no—”

“I am though,” Eleanor says firmly. She shrugs with a pained smile on her face, “I just—I dunno, for so long it was just easier to travel, to move on to the next place and see the world. It allowed me not to get attached to anything or anyone because—well, I was always scared.”

“Scared?” Louis repeats and Eleanor nods.

“I was scared of letting myself fall for someone or getting too attached. I—I thought I would get bored or some guy I liked would become bored with me or leave me. So, for years I used traveling, and my blog as part of an excuse to not get in relationships, to not get attached to anyone or anything for too long.”

A sadness casts over Louis.

“In all honesty, I envied you Lou. You’re okay with the quiet moments in life. You like the silence, while I need to fill it with excitement and noise. You can settle down, make a future yourself and plan things out while I can’t, or at least I felt like I couldn’t for a long time.”

“You can though, El,” Louis insists. Eleanor gives him a sweet smile and finally, finally she reaches over takes his hand, her eyes kind yet serious.

“I know that now,” she smiles. Louis feels instantly lighter than before.

“Yeah?”

Eleanor nods, “I mean, I always knew that I couldn’t do this lifestyle forever. But like, I kept pushing that thought back for a long time. But I have been feeling run down for the last couple of years. Being on the go constantly was fun for a long time, but now—it’s just so tiresome. I lost that same spark and love I had for traveling. It’s still here, but it’s not as strong as before.”

“So what are you saying?” Louis asks thickly.

“I’m saying,” she begins, “That I have trips planned out for the next year, possibly longer. But after that, I’m seriously considering going on hiatus for a while and setting up some sort of normal life in New York.”

Louis exhales, his eyes wide, “Really?” Eleanor nods and suddenly Louis feels guilty, “El, it’s not because of me is it? Because you shouldn’t—”

“It’s not, Lou,” Eleanor insists. She shrugs lamely, “It’s more then what you said. For a long time, I’ve watched my high school friends go to school, settle down get married and have kids. I’ve always wanted that, I do want all that one day so much. I just—I never thought I could have that before.”

Louis’ heartbeat throbs in his ears.

“W-What changed your mind?” he asks. Eleanor gives him a look that just cuts right through him.

“Are you seriously asking me that, Lou?” she asks, a fond smile on her lips, “You changed all that—you made me realize I could settle down one day, but it would have to be with the right guy.”

A stunned smile spreads of Louis’ face.

“I’m the right guy?” he asks dumbly, “Really? After everything that happened?”

“Yeah,” Eleanor exhales, squeezing his hand, “I can forgive everything that happened and start with a clean slate if you can do the same for me.”

“Done,” Louis agrees easily. Eleanor beams.

“But Lou, you know what this means right? I’m gonna be on the road for most of the next year, most likely longer. We’d be doing long distance.”

Louis shakes his head, a deep smile on his lips, “No we wouldn’t. I mean, we don’t have to at least.”

Eleanor frowns, “What?”

“I quit my job today,” he tells her.

“You did?” Louis nods and Eleanor asks with inquisitive eyes, “Why?”

“I read you blog post about Los Cabos.”

Eleanor stares at him, “Yeah?”

“Took me long enough, but I yeah—I read it today at work,” he bites his lip shyly, “Did you mean what you said? About finding what you always wanted in Los Cabos?”

Eleanor rolls her eyes and it’s just so Goddamn endearing.

“How many times do I have to tell you Louis?” she asks, and adds on, “Perhaps I need to be more clear, hm?”

Louis’ not expecting Eleanor to slide over in the middle of the couch, her legs crossed like a pretzel as she faces him. He holds his breath as Eleanor gives him a shy grin before she leans in closer to him, her hand gently cupping the side of his neck. She gives him a serious gaze before leaning in and kissing him timidly on the lips. Louis’ eyes flutter until they’re closed altogether, and he breathes in the kiss, relishing in her presence. He reaches out and softly holds her ribcage as the kiss grows with more fever over the seconds. It’s so good, so much better then Louis had remembered it to be.

When she draws back Louis’ breathless and Eleanor’s beaming.

“I love you,” she tells him in a whisper. Outside there are ambulances’ sirens raging on but Louis can barely hear them over Eleanor’s soft voice.

Louis draws on a lazy smile, “You do? Really?”

“Yes,” she confirms, “I think I always loved you,” her hand coming up to stroke his hair. Louis grabs her wrist quickly and kisses her palm. He presses her hand into his cheek and breathes in deeply as he looks up at Eleanor with vulnerable eyes.

“I love you too, El,” he tells her, “With all my heart.” The blush that comes up on Eleanor cheeks just makes Louis love her more. He smiles wistfully at her before saying, “You know in Los Cabos before—right before you left you said you were going to ask me to come with you.”

Eleanor frowns for a moment before a giddy smile laces up on her lips.

“Oh?” she asks coyly and Louis nods.

“Well now, seeing as I am an unemployed photographer with nothing better to do,” Eleanor giggles and Louis feels his spirit soars as she leans in closer to him and wraps her arms around his neck, It feels like home. “I was sorta hoping that offer still stands.”

Eleanor grins, “You wanna see the world with me?”

“Only you,” Louis tells her, kissing her cheek.

“Well,” Eleanor plays jokingly, “First and foremost, I’ll have to teach you how to pack. I only have a week to train you before we head to Napa.”

Louis grins widely, “I’m a fast learner.”

Eleanor bites her lip, her fingers playing with the collar of Louis’ shirt. She shakes her head, “This is all crazy—I just, this is really happening, yeah? We’re about to travel the world for the next year.”

It seeps in and Louis’ smile couldn’t possibly grow wider.

"It doesn't sound crazy to me," Louis states. A huge smile blooms over Eleanor's face.

"I don't think it's crazy either," she says, and her voice is serious as she adds, "I think it we were always supposed to see the world together."

“So that’s a yes?” Louis asks, hope thick in his voice.

Eleanor nods, and Louis can she giddiness in her eyes. She squeals as she hops in his lap, making Louis topple backwards on the couch. She declares over and over again against his lips how much she loves him in between passionate kisses.

                Louis takes it as a yes.

                He has no idea what the next year has in store for him, other than Eleanor will be by his side wherever they end up.

And for Louis, it’s the most thrilling reality he could ever think of.

 


	6. Epilogue

*18 Months Later*

                Louis’ just zipping up his jacket when Eleanor pop her head back in their cabin.

                “C’mon Lou! We’re gonna miss it!” she whines, and Louis just laughs as he lets her drag him out of the cabin and onto the large deck attached to their room.

                Her excitement is adorable.

                They’re on a cruise ship off the coast of Alaska. The they’re on day ten of the cruise and it’s just been a trip of all a lifetime. Well, every trip Louis’ been on with Eleanor over the last year and a half has been a trip of a lifetime. But Louis’ always wanted to go to Alaska, ever since he was a little boy, and the state has not disappointed at all.

They started out in Seattle and have been hitting up all the major cities in Northern Canada and Alaska. Juneau, Anchorage, Homer and Icy Strait are just some of the ports they’ve stopped on. But the one they visited earlier today, Kodiak Island, is Louis’ favorite by far. Tomorrow they’re gonna visit a glacier, a fucking glacier, and Louis is still struggling to wrap his mind around that, even though this trip has been planned for months now.

The vista in Alaska is just breathtaking no matter where they go. It’s mid-March so the snow is starting to melt on the lands, but that’s not saying much when there’s still feet of along the coastline. The air is different then any other place Louis’ been to, it feels crisper and the cold air stings as you in inhale in the best way possible. The waters up here are possibly the darkest shade of blue Louis’ ever scene, and he’s seen a lot of rivers, lakes, gulfs and ocean waters in the last eighteen months.

But the waters are also so gentle, perfect condition for Eleanor’s seasickness (which has practically been nonexistent this whole trip, but Louis still makes her wear the bracelets he gave her back in Los Cabos), and perfect for sailing on possibly the largest and most extravagant cruise Louis has ever scene. He’s never been on a cruise before, but Louis never thought he could go rock climbing on a cruise or go to the spa on the middle of the Gulf of Alaska or eat from four different types of restaurants on a cruise ship. They have the largest cabin available, which features a hot tub on the large attached, private wooden deck, a large king-sized bed and huge windows to watch that overlook the ocean.

Two years ago, Louis could never imagine ending up here with the woman he’s more then certain is his soulmate.

His heart flutters in his chest.

“Is the camera set up?” Eleanor asks as she goes up to the railing. She turns around, pressing her back into the metal railing, “Are you gonna film it? I want us to replay this over and over again!”

Louis smiles slyly.

She has not fucking clue what’s coming.

“Yep,” Louis says as he finishes up toying with his camera. He’s sets it down on a small wooden table that with a small tripod to steady it. He quickly looks in the lens to see if the angle is right. He laughs and tells Eleanor, “Okay, babe—now smile for me.”

Eleanor fixes up the end of her hair, “Do I look alright?”

“You look beautiful, love,” Louis relays a heartfelt compliment before teasing her, “Despite that dead animal on your head.” He’s been mocking her about the trapper style hat she picked up in Juneau for days now

“Louis!” Eleanor huffs, but giggles quickly, “A—It’s faux fur, thank you very much. And B—It’s very fashionable, and C—It’s very warm and practical for Alaska. Unlike that beanie of yours you got in Hawaii of all places.”

Louis shrugs as he pulls his beanie over his eyes, a mischievous look in his eyes, “My ears are just fine.” Eleanor shoots him a playfully annoyed smile.

“Just get over here! It’s supposed to start any minute now!”

With that, Louis switches his camera to video mode and presses the record button. He’s made sure he has plenty of battery life, so even if they end up waiting a while, it should be all good. His family is going to want video of this for sure.

Eleanor takes his hand and pulls Louis into a hug. He kisses the top of her stupid, bulky hat and wraps his arms around her. It’s so gentle, so serene and peaceful and Louis wouldn’t want to be here experiencing this with anyone else but Eleanor.

It’s the perfect setting, and the time is almost right.

“I couldn’t have thought of a better way to end the blog,” Eleanor murmurs into his chest.

And well, for Louis, it’s still is a little weird accepting that this is their last trip. Not forever, he keeps reminding himself. Over the last eighteen months, Louis’ camera has collected thousands of pictures of them from dozens and dozens of places. He has pictures of Eleanor on a camel outside of Cairo. Louis has pictures of them eating authentic French fries _Lady and the Tramp_ style in Belgium. There’s videos of him and Eleanor learning how to dance the samba in Barcelona. He has pictures of the Appalachia mountains in spring, the Grand Canyon in fall, the Victoria Falls in summer and St. Petersburg square in winter. He learned how to surf in Bali, learned how to ski in Northern France and learned how to make authentic Swiss chocolate. Him and Eleanor have danced on beaches in four continents and feel in love with each other over and over again in each place they’ve been to together.

It’s been a whirlwind year and a half to say the least.

Six months back when they were on a hiking trip through Panama, Eleanor told him she was exhausted with the constant traveling and wanted to settle down in one place with him. Louis was supportive, is supportive of her choice, but kept questioning if it was what she really wanted. She assured him it was, and that she was content with letting this phase of her life come to an end and start up the next chapter of their lives together.

That chapter so far involves a new deluxe apartment in Tribeca, possibly a dog in the near future and for Eleanor, a new job as the Editorial writer for National Geographic magazine. She’ll still travel the world and explore new places, but only go on four trips a year for at least two to three weeks. Her pieces will be at least six pages, so she’ll have a lot to write about. Eleanor made Louis promise her when she took the job that if things in New York get too crazy for her, he’d take her down to Virginia for a week end get away like her grandparents used to do when she was a little girl.

And Louis? Well, he doesn’t have it all figured out just yet. He’s got a few job offers waiting for him when they get back, but he’s not thinking about that now.

All he can think about is being here, right in the present with Eleanor.

He kisses her head and says, “I’m so fucking proud of you.”

“I’m proud of us,” Eleanor tells him, lifting her face up to look at him. Her cheeks are rosy from the cold but her eyes, her eyes are bright and happy, “I’ll miss writing for the blog. For a long time, that’s all I had. But now,” she beams up at Louis, “Now all I can think about is what the future will bring for us. I’m seen enough of the world, Lou, and all I know is I want to have whatever adventures the future has instore for us with you.”

A slow smile spread over Louis’ face.

He’s never had any real doubts before of what Eleanor’s answer will be in just a few minutes, but now more than ever Louis is completely sure of what she’ll say.

“I love you, El,” Louis exhales, his visible breath hitting her face, “I’m so—I feel so grateful for these last couple of years. Meeting you was the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Easy now, Louis tells himself, stopping before going too far. He has more to say, more he’s planned out to say for months now, but he needs to hold out for a little while longer.

Eleanor looks softly up at him, her head tilted, “I love you too, Louis. You changed my life in ways I didn’t even think was possible.”

Louis opens his mouth to say more, but something catches his eye.

“El, look—I think it’s starting!” he exclaims and the two turn their focus out to the ocean.

High up above them in the sky, flickering yellow lights dance across the sky. It grows after a moment, the lines becoming larger and the yellow turning to a bright green towards the top of the light. They move in slow motion, hazy, dreamy lights that leave Louis breathless. It’s like some sort of Von Gogh painting.

Louis’ always wanted to see the Northern Lights in person and being here in person with the woman he loves is something out of a dream.

“Wow,” Louis exhales.

Eleanor shares his same feeling, “I know. I just—it’s so beautiful.”

She reaches over and takes Louis’ hand.

Over time, the waves of lights morph colors from true green to a bright turquois blue. A deep purple gets thrown into the mix at one point, and then some fuchsia pink ripples across the sky over the purple. It’s like watcher runners pass off a baton in a long race, with each color taking turns over dominating the skies above and radiating the each below with their gorgeous colors.

After twenty minutes, Louis looks over to Eleanor. Her eyes are wide and trained on the sky, her mouth parted in awe. Her face is glowing with yellow and pink lights and there’s the beautiful, childlike wonder in her expression.

Louis smirks, and the small trace of jitters he was feeling before are long gone.

The perfect moment is now.

He reaches in his pocket and carefully pulls out the box he put there hours before and somehow Eleanor hadn’t felt or found the box in his suitcase this whole trip.

Louis takes her hand, lightly moves Eleanor to face him away from the light show. Eleanor gives him a cute baffled look and it’s clear she has no idea what’s coming. But then, Louis kneels down on one knee and Eleanor grasps in her hands as the Northern Lights dance over them.

Their adventure is just getting started.

~*~THE END~*~

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading this fic!  
> **PLEASE LEAVE ME KUDOS AND NICE COMMENTS! THANK YOU!!*  
> Also, also--< a href=”http://teatimetommo.tumblr.com/post/174948396295/take-me-somewhere-new-by-thequietqull-compete” > please like and reblog the tumblr post for this fic! < /a > Thanks!  
> Take care my loves! :)


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